
n.. r^VG50 



Book 



^ttl 



*' *• 






/ C Z, 




^'Jituje^ I'liY i.. 



/z /^L^/ r- // -;y /- ^Y .^Ju. 



PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 

ALSO, 

LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



BY JAMES P. WILSON, D. D., 

Late Pastor of the First Presbjrterian Church, Philadelphia. 



•*Nil nisi justum suadet, et lene." 

T O T^gl C H IS. P R E F I X E D , 

THE SERMON, 

PREACHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR, 
BY REV. THOMAS H. SKINNER, D. D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

FRENCH & PERKINS— 159 CHESTNUT STREET 

BOSTON: 

PERKINS 8c MARVIN— 114 WASHINGTON ST. 
1833. 




3 VC^^ 
-W7 



Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-two, by Matthew Wilson, in the Clerk's Office 
of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania- 



/^^^ 



WM. F. QEDDES, PRINTER, 9 LIBRARY ST. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

This work is a defence against unfounded pretensions; and in- 
tended to exhibit, without wounding- any individual, the illiteracy 
of excluding from mercy or covenant favors, all but the subjects of 
the hierarchy; and of making mute presbyters a characteristic of 
the primitive church. The inquiry is first orderly pursued through 
the early testimonies, that innovations might be detected; and the 
Scriptures afterwards examined according to original ideas. 

This book has been printed in numbers in the Christian Specta- 
tor, but merely with the design to elicit objections, that it might 
be rectified, if found unjust, or in error on any point. Compensa- 
tion was offered by the publisher at New Haven, but refused, 
because the right was reserved. 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION L 



Page 



The ordinary officers at ^the 'demise of the apostles, Barnabas 
spurious. The Pastor of Hermas a forgery. The testimony 
of Clement of Rome, ...... i 

SECTION II. 
The evidence furnished by Polycarp. The fragment of Papias, - 7 

SECTION III. 

The disinterested representations of Justin Martyr, The letter of 

the church of Smyrna. The fragment of Hegesippus, - 16 

SECTION IV. 

Tatian. The letter of the churches of Vienne and Lyons. The 
fragment of Melito. The writings of Athenagoras. The tract 
of Hermias. The books of Theophilus of Antioch. The works 
of Irenaeus, ....... 25 

SECTION V. 
The facts appearing in Clement of Alexandria. Novatian's writ- 
ings in Tertullian and Cyprian. The testimony of TertuUian, - 36 

SECTION VI. 
The letters ascribed to Ignatius are evidence of the third century. 

A reply to Philo-Ignatius, - - - - 45 

SECTION VII. 
The dialogue of Minucius Felix. The writings of Hippolytus. 

The testimony of Origen, - - - - . 61 

SECTION VIII. 
The character and evidence of Cyprian, ... - 69 

1* 



VI CONTENTS. 

SECTION IX. 

The epistle of Firmilian. The writings of Gregbry Thaumaturgus. 
The fragments of Methodius. The seven books of Arnobius. 
The writings of Lactantius, - - - - - 82 

SECTION X. 
The character and writings of Eusebius, . . - . 89 

SECTION XL 
The origin and history of councils prior to A.D. 787, - - 99 

SECTION XII. 

The writings of Hilary of Poictiers. The learned productions of 

Hilary the deacon, --.... 108 

SECTION XIII. 

The important writings of Athanasius. The six books of Optatus. 

The testimony and sufferings of Aerius, - - . us 

SECTION XIV. 

The writings of Basil the Great. The life and writings of Gregory 
of Nazianzum. The works of Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of 
Basil, - - 127 

SECTION XV. 

The ordination and writings of Cyril of Jerusalem. The writings 

of Ambrose, .-..-.- 137 

SECTION XVI. 

The works of Epiphanius the imbecile Metropolitan of Cyprus. 

His testimony of the Apostolical Constitutions, - - 144 

SECTION XVII. 

The supposititious writings of Dionysius the Areopagite. The vol- 
uminous writings of John, since called Chrysostora. The frag- 
ments of letters of Isidore of Pelusium, - - - 153 

SECTION XVIII. 
The works of the learned Jerom, - - - - - 162 

SECTION XIX. 
The ten tomes and supplement of Augustine of Numidia. The 



CONTENTS. Vll 

remaining writings of Synesius of Ptolemais. The history, epis- 
tles, dialogues, &c. of Sulpicius Severus. - - * 177 

SECTION XX. 

The writings of John Cassian of Marseilles. The history of So- 
crates of Constantinople. The nine books of Sozomen of Pal- 
estine. The writings of Theodoret of Antioch, - - 188 

SECTION XXI. 
The writings and ambitious efforts of Pope Leo the first, - 198 

SECTION XXII. 

SEPARATISTS OF THE EIGHTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES. 

The Piedmontese a part of the Latin church, A. D. 817. They 
were episcopal at the death of Claude. The history of the ori- 
gin and progress of the Bohemians. The Waldenses of France 
sprang from the followers of Claude, - - - - 208 

SECTION XXIIL 

THE HISTORY OF ORDINATIONS. 

The extraordinary offices of Apostle and evangelist were not by 
ordination. There were no ordinations but of presbyters and 
deacons. The first diocesan bishops -were not constituted by im- 
position of hands. Canonical ordinations arose after the second 
century, - - - - - - » - 221 

SECTION XXIV. 

LAY ELDERS EXCLUDED BY EPISCOPACY. 

The Syrian churches, Waldenses and Culdees were all episcopal. 
Lay elders were introduced at Geneva, by a compromise. Af- 
terwards adopted by other cantons; also in France, Nether- 
lands, Scotland, England, and America, . - . 253 

SECTION XXA^. 

The primitive state of the church having been sought from credible 
witnesses of the facts, without regard to their opinions, or hear- 
says; and the changes marked from the commencement of the 
second to the termination of the fifth century, and having seen 
the successive introduction of parochial and diocesan episco- 
pacy, the canonical ordination and human authority of the latter, 
and the creation of quasi presbyters by Calvin, we are prepared 
better to understand the New Testament by the rejection of these 
novelties. But bishops are by some supposed to be the succes- 



VIU CONTENTS. 

sors of the evangelists, and Timothy is made bishop of Ephesus. 
— How Timothy received authority and for w^hat purpose. An 
evangehst before he came to Ephesus. He was left by Paul at 
Ephesus, the last time Paul was there, Timothy having returned 
thither after Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Timothy left 
Ephesus after ordaining presbyters there, and came to Paul in 
Macedonia, before his return to Jerusalem and first imprison- 
ment. The first letter to Timothy was before he left Ephesus to 
go to Paul in Macedonia, and instructed him in choosing and or- 
daining the presbyters. He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem and 
Rome, where he was during the Apostle's first imprisonment. 
The second letter to Timothy was written during the second im- 
prisonment, and discovers that Timothy was not then at Ephe- 
sus; it calls him to Rome; and it no where appears that Timothy 
ever returned to Ephesus after ordaining the elders there, - 251 

SECTION XXVI. 

TITUS WAS ALSO AN EXTRAORDINARY OFFICER, AND NOT A 
BISHOP OF CRETE. 

He was Paul's attendant or evangelist, before the Gospel was 
carried to Crete. — Apollos is named in the epistle to Titus, but 
as they first saw Apollos on Paul's last visit to Ephesus, it wag 
written after that visit. Every movement of Paul, from the riot 
at Ephesus unto his first imprisonment, is given, and events show 
he did not leave him in Crete before he went to Rome. — His let- 
ters from Rome discover that Titus was not with him during his 
first imprisonment, and of course he could not have left him in 
Crete on his return from Rome.— Titus had been with Paul at Je- 
rusalem, but after separating from Barnabas, he was no more 
with Paul till his second visit to Ephesus; probably he was sent 
with the letter to the Galatians,and met Paul at Ephesus on his last 
visit there, from whence Paul sent him to Corinthj'and he came 
to Paul in Macedonia, and was sent back to Corinth. — At some 
period after his first imprisonment, they may have gone to Crete; 
and Titus being left there, received this letter as a discharge from 
thence, when a substitute arrived. He was at Nicopolis one win- 
ter with Paul; and the Scriptures leave him in Dalmatia, - 283 

SECTION XXVII. 

THE FIXED STATE, AND ORDINARY OFFICERS OF THE PRIMI- 
TIVE CHURCHES. 

Under the spiritual dispensation of the gospel, the extraordinary 
officers were the apostles, to confer gifts and teach by means of 



CONTENTS. IX 

the inspiration of suggestion; the evangelists, to plant and water 
churches; prophets, with occasional inspiration to explain the 
Scriptures.— The gifts are described, 1 Cor. xii. 28; Rom. xii. 
6 — 8; Ephes. iv. 11, 12. — Officers qualified to administei ordi- 
nances, succeeded the extraordinary gifts, and churches, which 
were Christian societies, were substituted for the synagogues. But 
two orders or kinds were adopted — presbyters, who were called 
also pastors, to teach, ordain, administer baptism and the euchar- 
ist, and to govern, and deacons to serve. — Among the presbyters, 
a bench of which was at first in every church, and but one pres- 
bytery in a society or city, there was one who presided, denomi- 
nated 7rpiO(xl u)Cf angel, and by other names; yet the ordination 
was not different from that of the rest. — The first change was by 
a gradual transition into pastoral or parochial episcopacy, after- 
wards into diocesan. — This was established by the Council of 
Nice, and at length produced papacy, .... 270 

Liturgical Considerations, - - . . - 289 



SERMON.* 



Among the reasons, my brethren, which induced th6 
speaker to undertake, at your request, the performance of 
the present service, he is unwilling any one should reckon, 
a sense of his competency to the task. If one's ability to 
speak justly of another, is at all proportional to their de- 
grees of mutual conformity in talents and virtues, tliere 
are not many persons among the acquaintance of your late 
pastor, of whatever experience and attainments, who ought 
to think themselves adequate to a complete description of 
him. An intimacy of nearly sixteen years, has made him 
who addresses you very conscious, that his inferiority in 
age, though a great disqualification, is probably the least 
considerable point in his unfitness to that undertaking. 
He was led, however, to hope, that he would receive so 
much assistance from the papers of his lamented friend, 
that he might almost make him his own biographer; but, 
to his great surprise, that peculiar man was found to have 
left not a sentence about himself, among all his manu- 
scripts; nor have many particulars in his history been 
ascertained, besides such as are of extensive notoriety. 

* Preached in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, 
January 16th, 1831. 



Xll SERMON. 



Hence it became necessary to make a discourse of a very 
different character from that which was first projected, 
and which perhaps would have better met your anticipa- 
tions. * 



MiCAH VI. 9. — The Lord's voice crieth unto the city; and the man 
of wisdom shall see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who hath ap- 
pointed it. 

It is one of the consequences of man's fallen state, that 
he is apt to misapprehend the design of God's gracious 
measures for his recovery. Shadows of good things he 
mistakes for the realityj ordinances of mercy become 
means of spiritual pride; grace is turned into licentious- 
ness; and Christ himself is made the minister of sin. 

The prophet had given, in the Jews of his day, an ex- 
emplification of this trait of human perverseness. He had 
represented that idolatrous generation as apparently sen- 
sible to the dangerous consequences of their idolatry, and 
desirous to discover some way in which they might avert 
the divine displeasure. '• Wherewith shall I come before 
the Lord; and bow myself before the high God. ^ Shall T 
come before him with burnt-offerings; with calves of a 
vear old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give 
my first-born for my transgression; the fruit of my body 
for the sin of my soul?" These interrogatories betray a 
radical misconception of the purpose for which sacrifices 
were appointed. They make God vindictive; and ap- 
peasable, only by expensive oblations. So had the hea- 
then, amidst their guilty darkness and fear, reproached 
the divine nature; but that the Depositaries of revealed 



SERMON. XlU 

truth should have fallen into this error, was scarcely to 
have been expected. An illustrious example in their own 
history should have made them wiser. The royal peni- 
tent's memorable declarations — '* Thou desirest not sacri- 
fice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt- 
offering; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit — a bro- 
ken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise," 
should have left them at no loss, as to the way of regaining 
the divine favor. But this people were strangers to the 
relentings of godly sorrow; they had formed no purpose 
of a genuine change of life; but merely desiring to avert 
the consequences of their infidelity, and thinking this 
might be done by offering costly sacrifices, they declare 
themselves ready to go to any practicable length, in such 
a way of escaping the displeasure of God. The prophet 
answers rebukefuUy to their infatuated inquiries, " He 
hath showed thee, man, what is good; and what doth 
the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Sacrifice not 
your first-born, but your sins. Reform your dishonest, 
oppressive, profane practices. Humble yourselves before 
God with a penitent, sin-renouncing, obedient spirit. 
'*Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and 
sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to 
obey is better than sacrifice, and to hea.rken than the fat 
gf rams." 

The madness which the prophet thus sharply repre- 
hends, in his own people, has not been limited to them. 
There are multitudes even now, who, to escape the pun- 
ishment of their sin, would do any thing which might be 
exacted, in the way of expense or penance — would fast 
and wear sackcloth, and give all their goods to feed the 
poor, and their own bodies to be burned, who yet most 

2 



XIV SERMON, 

stubbornly withhold from God the acceptable sacrifice of 
a subdued and obedient heart. 

This, however, is God's great demand of the sons of men 
—the main end and argument of all his overtures, ordinan- 
ces, instructior<s, and commandments; and any ritual ob- 
servances which do not involve compliance with this de- 
mand, are a perversion of the right ways of the Lord, to which 
and its authors, as in the case of Cain, the beginner of 
this iniquity, God hath not, and, without being opposed to 
his own institutions, cannot have respect. Hence the 
remonstrant strain of our prophet, after exposing in the 
manner we have seen, the mistake of his countrymen—a 
most culpable mistake, which might well incur a divine 
rebuke. What was the pretext of that ignorance which 
caused the perplexity of this people? Had not their means 
of information been adequate? Had God winked at their 
iniquity? Had he called them to repentance with an inr 
distinct or feeble voice? His voice, said the prophet, ** cri- 
eth" — not speaketh with a still small accent — but crieth, 
putteth on strength, calleth aloud, and reacheth afar — not 
to one or another, but the chief place of concourse, "the 
city," where the multitudes of men dwell — to all, from the 
least to the greatest, doth the almighty voice extend: As 
said Solomon, speaking of the Lord's voice under the fit 
names of wisdom and understanding — "Doth not wis- 
dom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She 
standeth in the top of high places, by the way, in the 
places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry 
of the city; at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O 
men, I call, and my voice is unto the sons of men." 

And now, if we would know what had hindered this 
people from comprehending that voice, by attending to the 



SERMOX. XV 

next words of the prophet, we shall learn that they had 
become so worldlj-minded, so sensual, that in respect to 
the things of the Spirit of God they were as men without 
understanding. Into this deep fatuity does the prophet 
insinuate they had sunk, when to his announcement that 
the Lord lifteth up his voice, he upbraidingly subjoins, 
"the man of wisdom shall see thy name." This it is 
which makes graceless men contemptuous of God's calls, 
that they heed not these calls as coming from God; full of 
all that is awful in his nature and imperative in his sove- 
reignty. If they so regarded them, both their ears would 
tingle until they ceased to resist them; and that they 
should not so regard them, is almost enough, as the Scrip- 
ture in several places intimates, to provoke unconscious 
nature itself into outcries of wonder and sorrow. 

And shall this stupidity pass unrebuked? Shall not that 
divine majesty which is not acknowledged in God's calls 
to repentance, assert itself at length in inflictions of just 
displeasure.^ Why then the mention in our passage, of 
"the rod," along with "the voice of the Lord;" the one 
to punish the contempt of the other. If ye will not hear 
his voice, said the man of God, *' hear ye the rod, and 
who hath appointed it." That awful rod which is al- 
ready stretched out, before your eyes, in the judgments 
which are abroad in your land, who think ye hath ap- 
pointed it, and for what purpose? You can despise calls to 
repentance, as though they were but the breath of a mor- 
tal like yourselves; shall the judgments which are upon 
you, be held in like contempt? 

Now what, brethren, was the manner and fashion of that 
crying voice of God, which it was so fearful a thing not to 
understand? Was it, do ye suppose, like that which 
poured through the open heavens at the baptism of Christ? 



XVI SERMON. 

Did it sound forth from the clouds with the loudness and 
terribleness of thunder? It was the simple expression of his 
will by the ministry of his servants, the prophets. So it 
was that God anciently spake to the fathers of the Jewish 
people. Tlie voice of the prophets — that was His voice of 
which it is said, the voice of the Lord is powerful, is full 
of majesty, breaketh the cedars of Lebanon, maketh Sinai 
to skip like a young unicorn, divideth the flames of fire, 
shaketh the wilderness, maketh the forest bare, by which 
the heavens and all their hosts were made, which spake 
and it was done, which commanded and it stood fast— that 
same almighty voice proceeded forth from the mouth of 
holy men of old, when they spake in the prophetical cha- 
racter. 

I. And now, in shaping the tenor of our discourse to 
the occasion of the meeting, our first remark is, that the 
fact just asserted in respect to the ancient prophets, is true 
also, in respect to the Christian ministry, the prophets of 
the present dispensation. The official and veritable ut- 
terances of the evangelical ministry are as surely "the 
voice of the Lord" as were the testimonies of the holy 
men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy- 
Ghost. The outward rank and condition of that ministry 
•^their birth, breeding, civil standing, and connexions — for 
the most part confessedly low, make nothing against this 
high speech concerning them. For the prophets and even 
the apostles, what were some of them in these unessential 
respects.^ N^J> what, in such respects as these, was the 
Incarnate Word, the voice of the Lord embodied and 
speaking with its own and not another's mouth? — It 
shows the depth to which our nature is degraded, that al- 
most nothing seems of worth in the world's estimation, 
compared to outward distinctions and possessions: And, 
therefore, God, that he might employ the strongest mean 



SERMOX. XVU 

possible for recovering us from this insanity, hath poured 
the full vials of his infinite contempt on these idols of 
mankind 5 in his choice and separation of persons, bot4i 
unto the honors of his Ir^avenlj kingdom, and unto the 
manao-ement and labors of his kingdom on earth: Not 
deigning, as his usual way has been, even to look on 
princes, and judges, and mighty commanders, while he 
puts his Holy Spirit in poor, unknown, uncultivated men; 
and from the mouth of such babes and sucklings, sounds 
out his own almighty voice, by which he hath shaken the 
earth, and not earth only, but also heaven 5 and will yet 
shake the deepest foundations of hell, and establish order 
and peace throughout his vast dominions, never to be dis- 
turbed again in all the ages of eternity. 

If any one still think, that the claim which we set 
up in behalf of the ministry of reconciliation, cannot be 
sustained, since these men, not being inspired, are fallible 
and may misinform their fellow men, which it were blas- 
phemy to say the voice of God might do — let such an one 
call to mind, that the present ministers of the word have 
this advantage over the Old Testament prophets, that 
whereas those prophets received the communications of 
the divine will, in sundry parts, here a little and there a 
little, unto us are committed at one and the same time, 
the whole mass of the inspired oracles, both of the old 
and the new dispensations; whereby we are far better fur- 
nished as organs of the counsel of God to mankind, than 
they were, although unto them the manifestations of the 
Spirit were immediate and fresh. For all those manifes- 
tations, whenever and to whomsoever first made, having 
been written down under infallible guidance, and the re- 
cord intrusted to an almighty guardianship, are at this 
moment as genuine, as excellent, and as directly from 

2* 



XVlll SERMON. 

the Spirit, as if thej had just been given to the world: 
The only difference is, that while ancient prophets re- 
ceived them in visions, dreams, extasies, and trances, 
they are presented to our minds through the medium, and 
surely not less desirable medium, of letters. Though the 
Christian ministry, then^ be not inspired men, they possess 
all the inspirations ever given — all that God has thought 
needful, for the benefit, whether of his ministers them- 
selves, or those to whom he sends them. What prophet 
was ever so thoroughly furnished io his work, as far as 
inspiration could furnish him, as the New Testamentman 
of God? 

But it will doubtless not escape recollection, that the 
ministry may misinterpret inspired Scripture; to meet 
which seeming argument against their being considered as 
'•the voice of t!ie Lord," let me put you in mind, that nei- 
ther did the ancient prophets fully comprehend some of their 
own inspired deliverances, but were left to discover, in 
the free exercise of their own fallible understandings, what, 
and what manner of time, the Spirit which was in them did 
signify, in his deep revelations to them concerning things 
to come. Inspired prophets, then, commenting upon their 
own oracles, might perhaps err, as the Christian ministry 
may and do, in their commentaries on inspired Scripture. 
But the prophets, notwithstanding the possibility of their 
misinterpreting some things, were the mouth of the Lord 
to mankind; and so, notwithstanding a like imperfection 
in our case, may be the regular preachers of the everlast- 
ing o-ospel. Take a distinction between the pure dicta- 
tions of the Spirit, and our uninspired expositions and rea- 
sonings upon them, and understand us as extending the 
hio-h ministral communications, whether of prophets or 
preachers, not a hair-breadth beyond the former, and 
where is the arrogance or the ill-consequence in cither 



SERMON. XIX 

case of pronouncing these communications ''the voice of 
the Lord." If preachers speculate, and sometimes, per- 
haps, the J may do even that to edification unless they 
seek to become wise above what is written, let them ap- 
prize the people that they are not then presuming to speak 
in the name of the Lord; as the prophet who told a dream, 
as a dream should have let it pass — let but this needful 
precaution be used by preachers, and let the people care- 
fully make the forementioned distinction, and there will 
be no danger of their receiving as inspired doctrine the 
commandments and speculations of men. 

Still, perhaps, some cannot but stand in doubt of this 
view of the ministerial function, as attaching to it a sa- 
credness and a sanction unwarranted by observation. 
Among those who profess to exercise that function, there 
is a radical discordance both in doctrine and life: Some 
unquestionably are not the Lord's mouth, and what sure 
proof is there that such sacred honor belongs to any of 
them? Now freely do we grant, nay, loudly protest, that 
there are indeed false teachers, bearing the name of 
Christian ministers, who privily and otherwise bring in 
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought 
them; but is it not forgotten that there were false prophets 
of old, who made the people of God to err through their 
"lies" and their "lightness?" And if in the presence 
of many hundreds of such deceivers, one solitary Elias or 
Micaiah could stand forth and sound out a voice as con- 
vincingly the Lord's, as if no counterfeit of that voice 
had ever been attempted, so may the regular ministry now 
on the stage, show credentials, no less clear, of a divine 
commission, in the midst of all the varieties of self-sent 
preachers on the face of the whole earth. Indeed, com- 
plaint on the ground now taken is as perverse, in this case, 
as it could be in any other, wherein genuine excellence 



XX SERMON. 

should be denied existence, merely because there are pre- 
tenders who say they have it, and have not. Ileal and 
apparent, genuine and spurious, are designations which 
men find occasions to use, in reference to almost every 
thing with which they have to do; and shall they, there- 
fore, become universal skeptics? All things in this world 
are such and so evidenced., as to suit a state of trial; and 
if this be proof of divine wisdom and goodness on the gene- 
ral scale, why should not these attributes be recognized 
as displayed, particularly, in the plan of Providence con- 
cerriing the ministration of God's saving counsel: and 
grace? 

But now while you yield to the conclusiveness of these 
observations, you are probably but the more solicitous to 
know THE MARKS OF THE TRUE MINISTRY, that you may 
be sure of not paying your personal attendance where 
"the voice" which "crieth" is not that of the Lord, but 
another. 

How, while one saith, lo here, and another lo there, 
is many a poor wayfaring man to know whither he must 
go? Is his rustic ear acute enough to try this confusion of 
exclamations, and distinguish the heavenly cry amidst all 
the imitations of it which the father of lies hath been able 
to invent? Men of corrupt minds are often in great fear, 
where no fear is, and surely there is none here, although 
the show of danger be not small. Scorners and sectarists 
have led heady and heedless people into the apprehension 
of an insurmountable difficulty, which is, in fact, no dif- 
ficulty at all. And who that is not utterly overpowered 
by the spirit of bigotry, can allow himself soberly to think, 
that God would give forth his compassionate voice for the 
guidance of benighted mortals in the way of life, and not 
make that voice intelligible even to the feeblest mind, in 



SERMON. XXI 

defiance of all the great deceiver can do to drown or to 
mimic it? How can it be the opinion of any thoughtful 
mind, that unless a man be learned and logical enough to 
explore and sift the arguments for and against the 
claims of a certain denomination, to be considered as 
descendins: with its ministers in an unbroken succession, 
from the apostles; unless he can do all this, he cannot 
know, by sound conviction of his own understanding, 
but that he is the dupe of a false teacher, who, in the guise 
of a sheep, may be inwardly a ravenous wolf? In no such 
way did Christ instruct his disciples to satisfy themselves 
as to the true character of teachers professing to have 
been sent from God? He gave them a test, at once infalli- 
ble, and so easy of application, that any unlearned man or 
child may use it, as will as a master of Israel. Not 
by their having the apostles at the beginning of their 
ministerial line — no, said He, who was even higher than 
the apostles, but "by their fruits ye shall know them. 
Do men gatlier grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" Here — 
I would think it no boldness to affirm, in the midst of the 
whole multitude of strivers for exclusive apostolic counte- 
nance — here, is the true criterion of ministerial preten- 
sions. A minister exemplifying the heavenly spirit of Christ 
in his walk before the world, and in his doctrinal inculca- 
tions ever enforcing the pure and entire truth of the gospel, 
and thus striving to win souls and build up converts in their 
most holy faith— such a minister, of whatever Christian 
denomination, approved by his brethren and having a seal 
to his commission in the hearts, perhaps, of hundreds be- 
gotten, through his preaching, to holiness and heaven — is 
a minister of Christ, who hath entered by the door into 
the sheepfold, the porter having opened to him as a true 
sheplierd of the sheep, however some may suspect that 
hands were laid upon him which wanted pure ordaining 
virtue. But, on the contrary, a minister who, by light- 



XXll SEUMON. 

iiess of manners, or by lies in his preaching, causes God's 
people to err from the narrow way of the gospel; who, in 
the tendency of his life and ministrations, makes little 
distinction between tlie world and the saints, whether in 
present character or eternal destiny; who pleads against 
a strict, and in favor of an easy and fashionable religion; 
and who, instead of having a seal to his ministry in the 
hearts of the elect, has there a witness against him, whose 
complaining voice, day and night, enters into the ears of 
the Lord of Sabaoth — such a minister, though of a church 
unquestionably the most apostolical in Christendom, is one 
against whom all heaven, if it might speak, would protest, 
and whom every one who cares for his soul, ought to shun, 
as a kid should shun the den of a hungry lion. 

II. So evident it is that >' the voice of the Lord" truly 
"crieth," in the testimony of the Christian ministry; and so 
easy is it, to distinguish that voice amidst all evil attempts 
to assume or imitate it: — Now, the next thing which the 
text and the occasion of this service lead us to set forth 
in our discourse, is the infatuation of mankind in not dis- 
covering the name and majesty of God, through the me- 
dium of his voice lifted up and crying in our humble tes- 
timony. That this discovery is not made, except by a 
very small remnant, it were preposterous to dispute, 
while almost the whole world as evidently lieth in wick- 
edness, at this day, as when the trumpet of the gospel was 
first sounded by the apostles. For such surely would not 
be the state of the world — they would not be slumbering 
go securely in the lethean arms of their sins, with the 
clouds of eternal wrath gathering and thundering about 
them, if they discerned in the simple cry of their preachers 
the presence of the almighty and uncontrollable will. I»5o, 
they neither discern it, nor believe it to be there; but 
rather^ in their deceived heart, if not with open clamor, 



sERMox. xxm 

they scorn the very pretence that God is with his minis- 
ters, and speaks with their mouth— they supremely scorn 
it, as the consummation of arrogance or delusion. "Who," 
say they, '' are these that speak as if they were God him- 
self, and were armed with celestial power? Do we not 
see that they are sinful mortals as well as we?" If any 
thing pertaining to the persons or circumstances of the 
ministry — their weakness, their poverty, their obscurity, 
their want of great learning and refinement, their having 
no connexion with courts, and no countenance from 
princes — if things like these seem appendages not likely 
to be found about the ministry of Him who covereth him- 
self with light as with a garment, and stretcheth out the 
heavens as a curtain, and layeth the beams of his chambers 
in waters, and hath his way in the whirlwind and the 
storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet — if any one 
think such a being would be ashamed of a ministry so mean 
as are the preachers of the gospel, then let him deny that 
God spake by Elias, and Amos, and other prophets of like 
personal disadvantages: and let him also justify the Jews 
in rejecting their Messiah, on these same grounds^ and let 
him hold, moreover, that the fishermen of Galilee were not 
the holy apostles of the Lamb, but emissaries of Satan. If 
God would have ministers o-reat and dio;nified enough to 
be worthy of their office, where, among all the sons of men 
or even his holy angels, could they be found? Should we 
measure the divine majesty by any personal exhibitions of 
grandeur in the power of archangels to make, v/e should 
limit and degrade the Holy One even to the depriving 
Him of his essential glory. Why then do we not acknow- 
ledge the wisdom of God in choosing representatives of 
Himself, whose personal appearance and character could 
never be thought of, as the medium of judging concern- 
ing His nature? Other obvious reasons there are, why the 
meanness of the ministry should be their recommenda- 



XXIV' SERMON. 

tion; but these need not be mentioned: No " man of wis- 
dom," none who is not smitten with the spirit of slumber, 
having eyes that he should not see, and ears that he should 
not hear, will fail to discern the excellency of the gospel, 
merely because we have that treasure in earthen vessels. 
No excuse for this insensibility to the majesty of God, can 
be derived from the manner in which that majesty reveals 
itself. If it should be revealed daily in voices directly 
from the skies, and amidst all the apparatus of terror 
which invested Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, 
while such a mode of disclosure would be wholly incon- 
gruous with God's good and wise purposes, and with the 
present state and circumstances of man, it needs no pene- 
tration to see that those ever- sounding voices would be as 
little likely to secure due acknowledgment, as the voice of 
nature ceaselessly proclaiming, in all her works and move- 
ments, the presence of her God. "The man of wisdom" 
will consider, not so much the medium by which "the 
Lord's voice crieth," as the evidences tliat the voice is 
truly that of the Lord^ and when that is the fact, the evi- 
dences of it, most assuredly, cannot be justly weighed for a 
moment, without overwhelming the mind with conviction. 
For is it even supposable that God may speak and room be 
left to doubt as to the source of the utterance.^ Must there 
not be something in the very voice itself, marking it as 
impossible to have come, save from the mouth of the Lord? 
Can any creature speak like the Creator? A man is not so 
far above a brute as God is above the greatest of his crea- 
tures; and if a man's voice sound differently from a brute's, 
must God's be undistinguishabie from a man's? Let all 
the voices in the whole creation cry, and after that the 
Lord's; shall He, before whom the whole creation itself is 
as the small dust of the balance, utter a voice so little 
wiser, greater, better, than every other, that it is hard to 
discern the diiference? Compare God's workmanship to 



SERMON. VXX 

that of a creature's. What pencil can paint, what hand 
can build like His? How coarse and clumsy seem the cun- 
ningest copies of art in the presence of His originals? And 
if the difference be so vast in what He does, shall it be 
almost undiscernable in what He says? When the mind 
which contains the original conceptions of all the forms of 
beauty, and sublimity, and strength, and goodness, which 
are to be found in creation— when the fountain of all in- 
telligence, opens His mouth, shall nothing be expressed be- 
yond the power of a breathing atom to utter? What else 
were to be expected but that what ever is truly divine, 
whether it be deed or w^ord, will bear the impress of 
divinity so clearly in itself, that it need but be considered 
in order to be known as wholly unlike what might come 
from a creature. So all likelihood leads us to conclude; 
and if any man on the earth will now candidly hearken to 
the voice of which we speak, he will find in this instance 
our conclusion confirmed: that is such a voice, that no 
ear is so dull but must confess it divine, unless resolved 
against a fair and submissive hearing. Think ye that the 
Christian ministry, whether of the present or any past 
generation, could of themselves have uttered such a 
voice? Could their narrow and sinful hearts have con- 
ceived such thoughts as that voice reveals? could the 
tongue of men or angels, unless moved by the inspiration 
of God, have uttered, and uttered with an eloquence 
such as mortal ears never elsewhere heard, such high les- 
sons of virtue and righteousness, such sublime concep- 
tions of God and his works, such humiliating views of 
man and his state, such a scheme of grace, such histories, 
such proverbs, such parables, such psalms, such prophe- 
cies, as that marvellous voice repeats, of which ministers 
of the gospel are appointed to be the echo, from land to 
land, and age to age. But the height of human infatua- 

3 



X5V1 SERMOX. 

tion will not be fully discovered without considering also 
the effects and achievements of that testimony which men 
so dishonor. If a voice should be uttered which should 
break the cedars of Lebanon, make Sirion to skip like a 
young unicorn, dry up rivers, set the mountains on 
fire, and melt down the ancient rocks, almo?t as much 
amazement would seize you to hear a man question 
whether that voice came from God, as to witness the 
proof of its stupendous efficiency; yet it is certain that 
even such a voice would not accomplish greater wonders 
than that hath done in which the world sees nothing to 
awaken their attention. It needs more than a mortal's 
tongue to tell, and more than a mortal's heart to under- 
stand, the number and excellency of the doings of this 
voice. It hath produced a new creation; a creation re- 
splendent with the Maker's glory, in a far higher sense 
than was the outward w^orld in the freshness of its being. 
It hath dispersed a worse than the primeval darkness, 
with a better than the primeval light. It hath built for 
ruined man a far fairer than his first habitation, and new- 
made him in the likeness of God, that he might be fitted to 
dwell in it; and scattering the powers of darkness before 
him, subduing hell and death under his feet, it hath 
brought him triumphantly to his new Paradise, and opened 
its everlasting gates for his admission, and in that briglit 
world it hath enthroned him a king and a priest unto 
God, to reign and shine for ever as the sun in the firma- 
ment. To use plainer speech, it hath in unnumbered in- 
stances illumined poor man's benighted mind, melted his 
stony heart into tenderness and love, conquered and re- 
newed his obstinate will, refined and sanctified his vile 
affections, broken him off from all manner of vicious 
habits, and established him in habits of the strictest pu- 
rity, given him immortal hope for the gloom of despair, 
spoken his storms of trouble into peace, made great tribu- 



SERMON. XXVll 

lation the occasion to him of heavenly rejoicing, and 
changed for him the grave into the gate of heaven. Such 
have been and such are some of the actual and manifest 
effects of this voice: but what more might not be added? 
If there is any thing desirable in refinement of taste and 
manners, in learning and the arts, in liberty and peace, 
the praise of it will not be bestowed where it is most due, 
unless it be acknowledged as an incidental legitimate fruit 
of the same wondrous voice. How soon would our entire 
world be as a vast field of blood, where wickedness in 
every frightful form would raven without restraint, if the 
voice which speaks through the gospel ministry should be 
silent. And yet mankind see nothing of God in it, but 
for the most part hold it in less esteem, than many of the 
empty cries which they raise among themselves. 

III. Now this in itself is an evil more deplorable than 
every other in the present lot of man; a strange evil truly; 
at the same time, the greatest of calamities and the 
greatest of sins; and yet what we are in the next place 
briefly to declare is, that bad as it is in itself, it draws af- 
ter it worse consequences — consequences which it had 
been well for him who has to meet, that he never had been 
born. These consequences will teach the incorrigible 
despisers of our testimony what it is they hold in such 
contempt. It now. appears to them as having nothing in 
it to be feared; they take liberties with it and find no 
hurt; they hear it or hear it not, as may suit their conve- 
nience or caprice: they mock at it; they gainsay it; they 
treat it in whatsoever manner they please, and yet it in- 
jures not a hair of their head. They sometimes do worse; 
seeking even to silence it, by stifling the breath that gives 
it expression. They lay their hands on the persons of the 
ministry, they scourge, they imprison, they kill them, 
they account them as sheep for the slaughter, and still wha 



XXVlll SERMON. 

harm do they suffer? So dealt the Jews with the prophets, 
the apostles, and the Prince of Life himself^ and thou- 
sands of God's faithful witnesses have fared in like man- 
ner in subsequent times. If this voice be the Lord's why 
is it not proved to be his, by some instant stroke of divine 
anger on every one who offers it the least disrespect? 
The patience of God which bears so long with the world's 
blasphemies and crimes^ the spirit of Jesus which re- 
strained him from coming down from the cross to prove his 
Messiahship at the challenge of his murderers, is not less 
mysterious than that the miracle performed on Lot's wife 
is not repeated upon every one who in any way dishonours 
the gospel ministry. Could the judgment, however, of 
these disdainful men be now realized, no one would com- 
plain that it seemed to linger. As the voice of civil law 
which is treated as if it were without strength by success- 
ful robbers and ruffians, appears sufficiently powerful at 
the terrible moment of their shameful execution^ so when 
the doom of these contemners of "the Lord's voice" has 
once overtaken them, that now unavenged voice, will con- 
vincingly show whose it is, by inflictions as demonstrative 
of an almighty hand, as the creation of the world. Time 
allows us not to enlarge here beyond one or two remarks. 
When the word of God came to the prophet Jeremiah, a 
man of like passions with ourselves, ''See," it was said to 
him, '^I have this day set thee over the nations, and over 
the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, 
and to throw down, and to plant and to build j" so tremen- 
dous was the strength that dwelt in a prophet's tongue: 
yet was it not equal to that with which Christ has armed 
the commissioned heralds of the gospel. "I give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven 5" ''Whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatso- 
ever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed iti heaven;" 
*'Whosesover sins ye remit, they shall be remitted unto 



SERMON. XXIX 

them, and whosesoever sins ye retain thej are retained;" 
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
but he that helieveth not shall be damned." when the 
voice of the evang;elical ministry shall be honoured by the 
full revelation of the power here given it by Christ, no 
creature will be left in doubt whether that voice be their 
own, or His who called the world out of nothing and it 
came. Then will be seen how truly Christ said, ''He that 
heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despis- 
eth me: and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent 
me." 

This also should be remembered, that the penalty of these 
despisers though not immediate, does not slumber for a mo- 
ment; neither is it slack in its approach as some count 
slackness. It is coming, as directly as the arrow to its 
mark; and when arrived it will be thought that light itself 
is not so swift. Nor are there wanting tokens of its ter- 
ribleness and its haste. For God, still rich in mercy, 
gives much warning to rebellious men; bringing forth the 
cloud of his indignation as from afar, with his lightning 
playing gently before it, that they may be without no in- 
ducement to make their escape from the fury of the com- 
ing storm. Since they contemptuously turn away their ears 
from his "voice," he lifts up his menacing "rod," to alarm 
them if possible out of their desperate stoutness. He vis- 
its them with corrective stripes: they are stricken, smit- 
ten, and afflicted in their minds, in their persons, in their 
families, in their connexions, in all their outward circum- 
stances; others are struck with death for their admonition; 
child, lover, and friend, one, another, and then another, 
are known no more in the sphere of their social inter- 
course; and yet for all this his comminatory anger is not 
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Lo, all 
these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring 



XXX SERMON. 

back his soul from the pit, to be enliglitened with the light 
of the living. But when these methods of correction have 
failed of their designed result, when men after proving 
their contempt on the voice of the Lord, refuse also to 
hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, God having en- 
dured these vessels of wrath, with so much long suffering 
will hasten to show his wrath and make his power known 
in their everlasting destruction. 

But there is one way whereby God sometimes reveals 
his admonitive indignation against the refusers of his mer- 
cy, which though seldom so esteemed by them, is of all 
others by far the most dreadful in the view of the man of 
wisdom; and the event which has this day convened us 
makes it specially proper to mention it. It is when God 
withdraws his voice and appoints silence to instruct them: 
when he smites not them but his own ambassador; and call- 
ing his rejected v/itness home, leaves them only his grave 
and his dust to remind them of eternity. This is a kind 
of warning which almost no one lays to heart; and yet, in 
the way of reproof, what could the Lord do more than this, 
to strike the rock of impenitency into contrition? 

It were most ungracious to insinuate that the recal of that 
very eminent man, who so long sounded out the "Lord's 
voice" from this place, should be regarded as a judgment upon 
the congregation; but this we may freely say, that every 
person, ''man of wisdom," or otherwise, who was accus- 
tomed to hear the word at his mouth, should riot be unex- 
ercised in deep thought and feeling, by that solemn act of a 
most deep meaning Providence. Especially does it con- 
cern those of you who though his testimony is ended, re- 
main yet in your sins, to ponder this, to you surely, serious 
occurrence. How often have you heard from him as he 
was about closing a powerful argument against your unbe- 
lief, the tender premonition that his days were almost num- 



SERMON. XXXI 

bered: what he then said has come to pass; and how so- 
berly does the fulfilment of his word in this instance warn 
you, that though heaven and earth may pass away, nothing 
that he ever spoke to you, "as the voice of the Lord," 
shall fail to be accomplished. He is not more certainly 
gone the way of all the earth, nor was it at all more cer- 
tain that he would go, than that what he has often told you 
out of the Scriptures respecting the final doom of the 
wicked, will be fulfilled in yourselves, if you do not re- 
pent. 

But, however his removal should be interpreted in 
respect to the flock of which he was specially the shep- 
herd, it reads a lesson to the church and the community 
at large, which nothing but the stupidity reprehended in 
this discourse can misunderstand. When one of the 
first luminaries in our heaven disappears, shall. the inhabi- 
tants of the land have no concern at the event? When 
Elias is taken up, shall the cry be nowhere heard, '* My 
Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horse- 
men thereof." We shall not now venture to present a 
character of this great man; which, whoever attempts, 
should aim at an exactness of resemblance, such as when 
in water face answereth to face, lest, bj' being confronted 
with the very precise image which he has left of himself 
in your hearts, and in his works, it should be reproved as 
untrue to so rare a specimen of God's handiwork. Our 
remarks concerning him, will be such only as may be 
prompted by an endeavor to enforce the instruction af- 
forded us by the Providence which has removed him.* 

• It may be well to record in this place, the following biographi- 
cal particulars concerning this distinguished man. He was born 
February 21st, 1769, at Lewes, in the state of Delaware. He was 
gi-aduated in the University of Pennsylvania, in 1788. He was 
admitted to the bar, in Sussex county, Delaware, in 1790. He 



XXXU SERMON. 

While ministers of a certain class, possessing little in- 
tellectual furniture, besides a bare knowledge of the es- 
sential truths of the gospel, are, with warm spirits, with a 
most exemplary zeal, and with much success, constantly 
employed in applying those truths to the hearts of their 
fellow men, they are sometimes disposed to hold in too 
little esteem, the labors of those of their brethren, whose 
taste, learning, and sense of duty, incline them to deep 
research into the principles of things, to careful analysis 
of complex subjects, to critical investigation, and minute 
exegesis of the sacred text, to elaborate inquiry into ec- 
clesiastical antiquities and the opinions and productions 
of early days, and to the knowledge and solution of all 
the most subtile objections that have at any time been 
urged by heretics and unbelievers, against the true Chris- 
tian faith; as if without such vast labors at the fountains 
of wisdom, these less curious divines could have been 
supplied with some of those sweet streams, of which they 
are content to drink, without considering to whom next to 
God they are most indebted for the privilege. When our 

was licensed to preach the gospel in 1804, and, in the same year, 
was ordained and installed as pastor over the united congrega- 
tions of Lewes, Coolspring, and Indian river. In 1806, he was 
advised by the Presbytery of Lewes to accept the call of the First 
Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, to which he removed in the 
same year. In May, 1828, he removed to his farm, about 20 miles 
from Philadelphia, on account of the infirm state of his health; 
preaching, nevertheless, to his congregation frequently as his 
health permitted. His resignation of his pastoral charge was ac- 
cepted in the spring of 1830. In the same season, he visited the 
city, and preached for the last time to his people. He triumphant- 
ly departed to heavenly rest, December 9th, 1830, at nine o'clock 
in the evening, and was buried on the following Monday (Dec. 
13th) in a spot, selected by himself, in the grave-yard of the Nesha- 
mony church. 



SERMON'. XXXIU 

friend fell asleep, in \vhat pulpit of this land, was a man 
to be found so enriched as himself, with the fruits of this 
patient, and, at this day, too unusual researches of mind ? 
Our ears never listened to a preacher whose common dis- 
courses discovered as rich treasures of recondite learning. 
And what more surprised us than the extent and variety 
of his acquisitions, was the ease and simplicity, and nice 
exactness, with which, on all occasions, he used them. 
In proportion to the depth and difficulty of his subjects, 
his tongue was loosed and moved nimbly and trippingly, 
as in its favorite sphere, expressing the most subtle dis- 
tinctions and discriminations of thought^ pursuing the 
most refined and complicate argumentations^ collating, 
criticising, paraphrasing. Scriptures hard to be under- 
stood; reciting out of ancient and uncommon books, his- 
torical testimonies, and statements of doctrine; without 
the assistance of notes, and yet with a fluent precision and 
perspicuity of language which no such assistance could 
have improved. 

Another recollection of him, which deepens exceeding- 
ly our sense of the loss we sustain by his departure, is, 
that with his great elevation in other respects he united in 
a rare degree what transcends all other excellence, and 
is the highest proof of true greatness, a catholic and chari- 
table spirit. We never knew one who scrutinized more 
severely the evidences of doctrine; and he was, conse- 
quently, when convinced, not liable to be soon shaken in 
mind; nor did he lightly esteem the truth which with so 
much diligence and honesty he had acquired, or think it 
unimportant that others should be ignorant of it, much less 
that they should pervert or falsify it. But his reading was 
too various, his observation too wide, his acquaintance with 
the history of theological strifes too ample, his persuasion 
too lively, that the differences among religious parties are 



XXXI V SERMOX. 

rather referable to a sectarian than a truth -seeking spirit, 
and while thej anathematize one another, may be consis- 
tent with the existence, in some degree^ of real piety in 
both, and their ultimate reconciliation in heaven — he was, 
in a word, too sound -minded and enlightened a man to be 
a fierce champion of an ecclesiastical shibboleth, or to elimi- 
nate those whom he might suspect of having no readiness in 
framing to pronounce it right. He was among the wor- 
thiest of those ministers in our own denomination, who, 
espousing no side in our debates about orthodoxy, are will- 
ing to let those debates proceed as long as they threaten 
no schism, but when that danger is seen, throw in their 
influence, as a balance wheel in a vast machine, whose 
movement, without such a regulator, would presently 
stop with a terrific crash and damage. Such was the 
spirit of this high-souled manj and who of us can consider 
the present state, might we not almost say, crisis, of af- 
fairs in our church, without sighing deeply in his spirit, 
that the voice which he could raise, were he now in the 
midst of us, is not to be heard again till time shall be no 
longer. 

Nor was it merely in his high place as a minister of 
Christ that he singularly honored his Master: he was dis- 
tinguished by simplicity as his disciple, not less than by 
gifts as his representative^ and it is when these two exist 
in union, that they become worthy of admiration. What 
a charm is there in gifts when simplicity exercises them; 
and how venerable is simplicity when it invests illustrious 
gifts. Never have we seen the person, in whom sim- 
plicity dwelt in an equal degree. Whether in his public 
ministrations, or in private life, this great man was unas- 
suming as a little child, claiming no distinctions above 
the plainest individuals, and appearing to be conscious of 
no superiority to them in understanding and knowledge. 



SERMON. XXXV 

And such exemplifications of the Spirit of Christ are not 
so common amongst us that we shall suffer little by this 
privation: How often does the church, not to say the 
world, concede reputation for greatness, where it is no 
sooner received than it becomes manifest there was a mis- 
take, by the immediate taking on of stateliness which it 
occasions? Such a transcendent instance of the reverse of 
this weakness was not to be lowly rated by true judges of 
excellence, and by them at least the loss of it will not 
be unlamented. With such rare simplicity in such a 
man, it was unavoidable that other great virtues should be 
united: in two of which especially, he was almost exces- 
sive. How did justice, as beaming from his example, re- 
buke those inconsistent religionists, who, by their pious, 
would fain make atonement for their dishonest deedsj 
and how did his generosity, a kindred principle, put to 
shame those covetous professors who uphoard treasure for 
themselves, as if orphans and widows, and the children 
of want, had ceased from among men. Time fails us to 
speak of his other high excellencies; the strength and 
calmness of his feeling, his gravity and cheerfulness; his 
ease, pleasantness, and exhaust] ess resources in conver- 
sation; and his most exemplary manner of life in his fami- 
ly. We shall leave his defects to be reported by those 
who would remind us that human nature is imperfect; 
only begging them, if they censure his excitability, and 
his too great coniinement at home, to imitate his noble- 
bleness in retraction; and to remember what an invalid 
he was for the last twenty years, how open his door ever 
stood to visiters, and what a good use he made of re- 
tirement* It being our purpose by these remarks to 



* Dr. Wilson's self-seclusion from company and society-meet- 
ings should not be imitated, at least to the extent to which he prac- 



XXXVl SERMON. 

stir and strengthen in our minds a just sense of the dis- 
pensation which has taken him from us for ever, we choose 
rather to remember, to what a height of excellence he at- 
tained, than that he did not rise beyond it. 

It does not alleviate the sadness of the event we 
deplore, that it occurred not unexpectedly, but by means 

tised it, by the g-enerality of ministers of the gospel: he had rea- 
sons for retirement peculiar to himself; but the best and most 
available kind of Influence which a minister may exert, especially 
in a large city, is, for the most part, we think, that which prayer 
and Intense study, rather than free Intercourse with mankind, and 
abundant parochial visiting, are adapted to supply. With few 
exceptions, it may be questioned, whether mmlsters who are much 
abroad in the families of a city congregation, not to say in other 
social circles, do not receive more injury to themselves, In the loss 
of time, in discomposure of spirit, in dissipation of thought and feel- 
ing, than is compensated by any benefit, obtained or imparted, in 
such discursive modes of pastoral activity. Where, Indeed, the 
private conversation of ministers with theu' people, is like Paul's 
preaching "from house to house," — a succession of sermons ad- 
dressed to individuals or families, unspeakable good may be both 
communicated and received, and ministerial usefulness and in- 
fluence, and even power in the pulpit, be greatly promoted: But 
the gifts of ministers must be very pecuhar, or there must be an 
extraordinary state of religious feeling" in their congregations, to 
admit of regular parochial visitation being so conducted In such a 
city, for instance, as Philadelphia. At least, if much of this sort 
of work is indispensable to the success of the gospel, in our cities, 
there should be more than one minister to a church,- for certain it 
is, that the character and frequency of public preaching, the at- 
tention to benevolent societies, the attendance on funerals, and the 
visitation of the sick, demanded of the ministers of city congrega- 
tions, in this day of unusual excitement and action, make full re- 
quisition on all their time, and form a burden of effort ^vhlch few 
men can long endure, without exhaustion and perhaps irreparable 
loss of health. 



SERMON. XXXVU 

of a very lingering illness which slowly enfeebled his 
frame, until it could no longer perforin the least function 
of life. On his own account indeed we rejoice that the 
days of his patient suftering are ended, but he had not yet 
numbered three-score years and ten, and the force of his 
mind was never greater than at the moment of his expi- 
ration. 

He departed prematurely in the full strength of all his 
intellectual powers, and that disease should have so long 
interfered with the use of those powders before his hour came, 
only gave cause in a less degree for the same grief which 
his death more loudly calls for. But let us now cease from 
recollections of what we have lost, whether by the in- 
firmity of his years, or the too soon completion of them, 
to secure in our breasts, if possible, an indelible stamp of 
the precious lesson of his dying conduct. 

Having protracted his pastoral labors until his breath 
became almost too short for the purpose of continuous ut- 
terance, he reluctantly concluded, as he was wont to say 
to his friends, that his work for the church and his God 
was done, and all that remained for him now was to pre- 
pare for his change. And how seriously did he set him- 
self to that most momentous of all the undertakings that 
mortal men are concerned with; choosing as the scene of 
it, a country retreat, and there amid the quiet, for whicli 
he always pined, ordering his conversation and reading, 
his prayers and meditations, with constant reference to 
the great event — whereby, while he established his own 
heart in the faith of the gospel, the hope of immortality, 
and confidence in the fullness of God's forgiving mercy, 
he became so instinct with these divine themes, that with 
the pen of a ready writer he indited for the edification of 
mankind a treatise on each of them. His favorite books 

4 



XXXVlll SERMON. 

now were those of the most spiritual and heavenly strain 5 
whereof the Saint's Rest of Baxter was almost always 
found with the Bible upon the stand beside him. Of that 
work especially he would speak in strong terms of com- 
mendation, at the same time remarking, ''there is no 
book to be compared with the Bible, and if I might prefer 
one part of that blessed book before others, I would say, I 
love the Psalms the best; I can always find in them some- 
thing more expressive of my feelings than my own lan- 
guage." At the last communion-service of the church 
within whose bounds he resided, which was but a little 
while before his death, he took part in the distributit)n of 
the sacred symbols, and in a manner which revealed his 
consciousness that he should never so officiate again — 
solemn from a sense of a near eternity and with a heart 
enlarged with the love of Christ and the hope of soon be- 
ing with him — he addressed his fellow worshippers on the 
great things of their common faith, far beyond his strength. 
His soul henceforth spread her wings for the world of 
rest. He said to a friend, *'I have a strange difficulty, 
and you will perhaps think strangely of it, I am at loss 
what to pray for" — and added, in a most solemn tone and 
with his eyes lifted to heaven, " God knows I am willing 
that whatever he pleases shall be done." His triumph too 
over the fear of death was complete. *' I have," said he, 
" been looking the case between God and myself, over 
and over and over again; and though I see enough to jus- 
tify God in casting me off a thousand times and more, my 
conviction of my interest in Christ is so firm, that I can- 
not make myself afraid; the only thing I fear is, that I 
have not fears enough." He remarked on the last Sab- 
bath evening of his life, '' I am almost home, and I thank 
God that I am— I went astray from him, but in his rich 
mercy he brought me back. I am unworthy of the least 



SERMON. XXXIX 

of his mercies, and if I may lie down beside his footstool, 
or if he will even put me under it — I will take the very 
lowest place in heaven." He needed some refreshment, 
and when the cup was handed to him, he took it and said, 
'*0 God bless this cup — I think I have a covenant right 
to it." A few hours before he died, he asked a brother 
in the ministry to pray for him, and specified this peti- 
tion, ''Pray that God will do with me just as he pleases." 
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright^ for the end 
of that man is peace! We mourn for him, but not on his 
own behalf. Such a life, and such a death, to those who 
believe the Scriptures, are equivalent to an assurance from 
heaven, that he now shares the beatitude of that holy 
world. We sorrow that he has left us, but not as those 
who have no hope. "For if we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will 
God bring with him. For this we say unto you, by the 
word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the 
coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who are asleep: 
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, and with the 
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 
Then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord." 



PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 



CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, 



THE EABLIEST TESTIMONY OF FACTS ; IX THE OBIQIirAIi 
"WOBBS OF THE AXCIENT "WniTIXGS, A3fD ESTAB- 
LISHED BY THE SACBED BECOBDS. 



SECTION I. 

The ordinances and officers of the Gospel neither conventional, nor subsequent 
to inspiration. — Presbyter meant not different offices; but presbyter and bishop 
the same commission. — The fathers credible for facts, their opinions unim- 
portant, their silence presumptive proof. — Barnabas and Hermas rejected. 
The testimony of Clement of Rome weighed. 

Forms of civil government are conventional, except 
where the social compact has been excluded by the 
dictation of pov^er, or perverted by the stratagems of 
fraud. But in the kingdom of Christ, laws, ordinances, 
and offices are all prescribed and adjusted with pre- 
cision; innovation is disobedience; an unauthorised 
office is insubordination and rebellion. The commis- 
sion and duties of the gospel-herald are spread upon 
the same pages of that word which he is to preach ; 
that he may know his own obligations, and the people, 
how he is to be regarded. Offices erected in the 
church, after the removal of inspired men, are unlaw- 
ful, whether in ancient or modern times. If such 

B 



3 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMEIVT 

offices can be justified on the conjectural ground of 
convenience, so may ordinances, and we may " teach 
for doctrines the commandments of men." Unity of 
design and operation, and especially the prevention of 
sinful competitions and disorder, justified presbyteries, 
in determining that one of their number should pre- 
side in their sessions, and in public worship. But for 
the ordination of a presbyter, or the ordination of any 
as lay presbyters, without apostolical precept or ex- 
ample, neither right nor power existed ; and every 
such unscriptural office was and is merely void. 

That no such commission under that dispensation 
whereof Christ was a minister, belongs to gospel 
times, will be conceded by those for whom I write ; 
and that the commissions of apostle and evangelist, 
given by him after his resurrection, for the planting 
of the churches, being obviously temporary, have ex- 
pired, may be at present also assumed. Our purpose 
is to show from facts, what permanent offices at first 
existed in every regularly constituted church ; that we 
may ascertain whether the term presbyter, Ti^^a^vlspo^, 
was, among the first Christians, understood to desig- 
nate two offices, a preaching and ruling elder, or one 
only, — whether the epithet ruling, n^oidlio^, was so far 
from importing subordination, that it was adopted to 
signify a presiding authority, — and whether becoming 
permanent at the close of the second century, this 
office, founded on mere expediency, w^as more usually 
expressed by the word ^TtL^xoTto^, bishop, common be- 
fore that period to all elders. If these things shall be 
made clear, the assumption of the existence of two 
offices, couched under the same term, and constituted 
by ordination, but deemed to be distinct merely be- 
cause presbyters exercised a diversity of duties in 
their episcopal character,** will be evinced to be mere- 
ly gratuitous and unsupported. 

Although the opinions and practice of the fathers 

a Phil, i, 1. Acts xx. 17—28. Heb. xiil. 17. IPet v. 1. 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 3 

can have not the least authority to estabhsh any office 
or doctrine, any prerogative or duty, not taught or 
exemphiied in the Sacred Scriptures, yet their under- 
standing of the Scriptures, without superseding the 
duty of thinking for ourselves, is entitled to our re- 
spectful attention; and their testimony, where unper- 
verted, may prove that an office or order was in use 
in their times; or their silence may, under circum- 
stances, establish, as far as a negative is. capable of 
proof, that none such was then in existence. Where 
the genuine work of a pious father represents a doc- 
trine, 01 an office to have been common, when he 
wrote, his testimony is credible, that the thing, which 
he asserts, was at least the fact as far as he knew. 
But if the opinion of such father, or the practice of 
the church in his day, must be admitted as authora- 
tively obligatory, though not founded on the word of 
God, then indulgences can remove sin, and a w^afer 
become the body of Christ ! The utility of their testi- 
mony is compatible with the admission that most of 
the Christian fathers, of whose writings we have any 
more than fragments, have left melancholy proofs of 
weakness and error; the conflicting opinions also of 
councils, equally disprove their infallibility. 

The meaning of a law is often discoverable from 
the first practice, which obtained under it. If the 
ruling elders, of which some modern divines have 
dreamed, were a grade of officers in every church, 
between preachers and deacons, such fact ought to 
appear in the early uninspired Christian writers. If 
it should not be discovered upon a fair investigation, 
the silence of antiquity will be conclusive against the 
existence of such an office. Those who inveigh 
against clerical aggrandizement, as a modern substi- 
tute for original simplicity, and denounce episcopal 
power as an unscriptural invasion of the privileges of 
the pastoral office, ought never to plead expediency, 
when they degrade the presbyterial, which is the only 
episcopal order, hy reducing presbyters to the stand* 



4 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ing of deacons. The present appeal shall be to facts 
supported by undeniable testimony. 

The ancient miserable production, by many ascribed 
to Barnabas, but deemed spurious by Eusebius, has 
not touched our subject. "The Pastor," supposed to 
have been written by Hermas, whom Paul mentions, 
was certainly not earlier than the middle of the second 
century. A translation only has survived ; from this 
the non-existence of the intermediate order might be 
easily argued; but our proofs shall be drawn only 
from books of indisputable genuineness. 

The excellent Clement, whose name Paul pronounc- 
ed to be in the book of life, is by the voice of anti- 
quity the author of a letter, which is the most, if not 
the only credible uninspired Christian production of 
the first century. Its caption purports a letter from 
the church at Rome to the church at Corinth; the 
contents are a persuasive and pious address, well de- 
signed to produce submission to the government of 
their elders, whom they had rejected. There is not a 
hint in the letter, either of an individual bishop, or of 
subordinate presbyters at Rome, Corinth, or else- 
where. Had there existed a superior officer at Co- 
rinth, this letter in defence of the presbyters must 
have recognized his authority; had there been lay 
elders, the total silence of the letter on that point is 
wholly unaccountable. 

That the elders, mentioned in this epistle, are of the 
same order, appears continually : " Let the flock of 
Christ enjoy peace, with its elders, 7tp£(?)3x;7fpQv, appointed 
over it:'"^ It is a shame that " the church of the Co- 
rinthians, on account of one or two individuals, should 
rise against their elders, Tipsc^vls^ov^ :"*^ " Our apostles 
knew from our Lord Jesus Christ, that contention 
would arise about the honor of the oversight, sniaxontji:. 
On this account, having perfect foreknowledge, they 
constituted those before mentioned; and they appoint- 

t Chap. 54. c Chap. 47. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 5 

ed in succession, that when they should die, other ap- 
proved men should accept that sacred office. That 
those should be ejected from their public ministrations, 
who were ordained by them, or afterwards by other 
excellent men with the consent of the whole church, 
and who have ministered blamelessly to the flock of 
Christ with humility, peacefulness, and intelligence, 
and w^ith universal approbation for a long time, we 
think to be unjust. For it would be a great sin in us, 
if we should cast off' those who have performed the 
functions of the episcopate, sniaxoTivi^ , blamelessly and 
holily. Blessed are those elders, n^sG^vli^oi, who have 
finished their course, who have obtained their com- 
plete and happy discharge, for they have no fears, lest 
any shall remove them from the place assigned as a 
mansion to them."'^ These elders held the episcopate ; 
were the bishops, presbyters, or leaders^ of that 
church ; were in every instance named in the plural, 
and, beyond all question, ranked in the highest order 
of the ordinary officers of a Christian church. 

The original organization of churches is particularly 
shown.^ The apostles, "preaching through regions 
and cities, x^9^t ^^^ ho-kh^, set apart their first fruits, 
having proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and 
deacons ecj' ini6xoT(.ov^ x(xi Sta^jovws' of those who should 
beheve." Had the word presbyters been here substi- 
tuted for bishops, lay-elders might have been alleged 
to have been comprehended ; but the word is not here 
generic ; nor can it be appellatively taken. The word 
set-apart, xadsolavov, fixes upon it an official sense. Also 
the expression %ala x^po,;^ »;»' jio%Bi^ evince that the pres- 
byters in the region of country, and in the cities, the 
chorepiscopi and episcopi; were at the first of one 
grade, and the individuals of equal authority. The 
supposition that either a superior, or an intermediate 
grade of officers, is omitted in this enumeration, is not 

d Chap. 44. 

e Chap. 1. *' vTroleta-TO/uivot rois )iyovfjiivoic v/u.m»" 

f Chap. 42. 

b2 



6 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

merely to charge the writer vv^ith a careless inattention 
to an important fact, but to impeach his veracity ; for 
if the first converts were set apart to three orders, 
they were not to two, for a portion of them constituted 
a third. That his language was designedly exclusive, 
appears also from his justification of this apostohcal 
two-fold distribution, by a passage in Isaiah; " I w^ill 
constitute their bishops in righteousness, and their 
deacons in faith."s Thus does this letter positively 
affirm to the church at Corinth, that their presbyters, 
whose government they had renounced, were all 
bishops, £7ii6xo7tov^, both by apostolic ordination, and 
prophetic authority. Should any allege, that this 
prophecy was misunderstood, our argument is' still 
safe, because the opinion of the writer is clear, and 
he must have given the officers of a Christian church, 
as they then existed. Thus nothing can be more evi- 
dent than that this letter, which, above all other unin- 
spired productions, is of the highest authority, and at 
the earliest period, being prior to the Revelation of 
John, does use Ttpsc^vlspo^ and a7io6xo7io$ for the same 
order and office, and allows them but one ordination 
only ; and, as it is in the face of those lordly powers, 
which bishops afterwards claimed, ju7^e divi?io, over 
presbyters ; so it is a standing and perpetual testimo- 
ny against those, who would degrade the offxe of the 
presbyter, to the mute ministrations of a modern riilwg 
elder; which is but another name for a deacon, and 
in a large proportion of the American Presbyterian 
churches, (whose opinion on this point has been pro- 
tected by all their successive forms of government, — 
his ordination, charge, authority, and duties being the 
same,) no other deacon exists. 

& Isaiah Ix, 17. rnps he renders i^/5-«o7rouf, and d^is'JJ cf/ctxspswf. 



SECTION II. 

The testimony of the Scriptures leing postponed, till the facts and primitive 
usage of the churches have heen shouxn; the letter of Poly carp is examined. 
— According to Clement and Polycarp, at Rome, Corinth, Smyrna, and Phi' 
' lippi, no officer was superior to the presbyter, and no presbyter a layman. — 
Papias accords with the same representation, that a presbyter, appellatively 
an elder, was the only ordinary teacher, and without a superior. 

After the credible uninspired evidence of the first 
century, the testimonies of the second, may be con- 
densed into three periods. In the first period are dis- 
covered, except forgeries, but two witnesses, Polycarp 
and Papias. 

The venerable "apostolical presbyter" Polycarp, 
whose letter is common, derived his first religious 
knowledge from the apostles: and was "in the church 
at Smyrna," probably, the 2rresidi?ig ^posalcos;, presbyter, 
"bishop," or angel.'' This epistle, unquestionably 
genuine, w^as written to the church at Phihppi, near 
the commencement of the second century, we suppose 
about A. D. 116, and more than fifty years before his 
martyrdom. Read publicly in the churches in Asia, 
so late as the fourth century,^ it "/vas too generally 
known, to be removed, or successfully interpolated; 
its simplicity too undisguised and evangelical, to en- 
courage imitation. 

A single letter from each of those apostolical men, 
Clement and Polycarp has rescued their testimonies 
from the frauds of designing ecclesiastics. The for- 
mer w^as saved by a single copy. Had a genuine let- 
ter of the pious Ignatius, in like manner escaped, it 
would have confounded those Arian and Athanasian 



-**6v ^)t 2,«t/gv(f iKKXita-ict %7ria-}t.o7r(^ .''> Irenaeus. 
b « *usque hodie.' ' Hieronym. 



8 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

productions, too credulously ascribed to him,andv^hich 
are the corner-stone of that system, which partaking 
of the Jewish and Pagan hierarchies, is equally hostile 
both to the rights of God and man. 

This precious relic of ancient times begins, in a man- 
ner altogether becoming the character of its excellent 
and pious author; "Polycarp and the presbyters with 
him, to the church of God dwelling at Philippi, mercy 
to you, and peace be multiplied from God Almighty, 
and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.'"^ The 
omission of his official name, has been made an argu- 
ment of superiority. He was neither an apostle, nor an 
evangelist. In a particular church, no office more 
elevated than that of a presbyter, has yet appeared. 
His silence, though precisely that, which might be ex- 
pected from the saint, had he been even Patriarch or 
Archbishop, names then unknown in the Christian 
church, can never establish the existence of a non-en- 
tity. Neither the title angel nor a^otaloi^, if such he 
was, which is probable, nor any consequent duty or 
honor, rendered him more than a presbyter. Not a 
word have we yet found, nor shall we in this letter dis- 
cover any thing, that bears even a semblance of a 
proof of any diversity of grade, in the ordinary preach- 
ing office, the possessor of which as yet, was indiscri- 
minately denominated presbyter and bishop. The 
6VV oAj'tc^t 7tpE6i5vlepocf presbyters with him, msiy import equal- 
ity, or locality; but it seems rather to denote a union, 
in design and action. If it be asked, why then was his 
name expressed? Because he wrote the letter, which is 
throughout in the first person singular. Thus Paul 
and Timotheus are joined in the introduction of the 
inspired letter to the same church; but the third verse 
is in the first person singular, and the letter was Paul's 
This introduction can neither prove parity, nor dispa- 
rity, in the office of Polycarp and the presbyters with 
him; yet it is not improbable, that liis grace, talents, cha- 



OF CHRISTIAN^ CHURCHES. 9 

racter, seniority in office, and even their personal know- 
ledge of him, may have conduced, with the fact that 
he composed the letter, to his naming himself in it to the 
Philippians. If Polycarp was the only elder, "who la- 
boured in word and doctrine," and the other presby- 
ters were laymen, ordained in the same, and that the 
only mode, to govern and rule; why were the deacons 
omitted? That such there were, appears from the let- 
ter itself. This omission of deacons and association 
of Polycarp with presbyters, is at least a probable 
foundation for the supposition that he was himself a 
presbyter, a name expressly given him in the writings 
of Ireuffius who remembered him, but whose account 
of him, being later testimony, must be left for future 
examination. This probability corroborated by the 
circumstance that no ordinary preaching officer ex- 
cept the presbyter has appeared in any testimony prior 
to this period, is all that can reasonably be expected on 
the point. As every presbyter was hitherto a bishop, 
if any were laymen, they were of course, lay-bishops. 
If Polycarp was as we have supposed a viposalcot;^ or 
presiding- bishop, he had the only preaching office, and 
the highest standing then known in the church; unless 
any of the Evangelists yet survived, of which we know 
not any testimony. If he was the angel of the church 
of Smyrna, mentioned in the Apocalypse, as some 
imagine he was, it is fair to presume that he was of 
the same grade with the angels in the other Asiatic 
churches, who were consequently not superior to that 
of the presbyter or bishop; but if angel was a higher 
office, it was a wandering star, that has come and gone 
without leaving a trace behind. Every talent must 
render its account, and the personal influence of every 
cfpofa7«s', presiding elder, or bishop carried with it, its 
own responsibleness. Neither Clement, nor Polycarp 
has recognised, either a superior authority, or an as- 
signment of duty more arduous, in any one presbyter 
of a church, than in another. The latter mentions 
only presbyters and deacons at Philippi; Paul directs 



10 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

only to bishops and deacons there.*^ Each naming 
two orders only, if Paul omitted presbyters and Poly- 
carp bishops, the defect is equally unaccountable; but 
if they respectively wrote to the same class, by those 
different names, they were both consistent with the 
constant usage of those days; and the conclusion is 
inevitable, that at neither period were they laymen. 
The advice of Polycarp to the church at Philippi to be 
subject to the presbyters and deacons,^ would have 
been a misdirection, if the bishops to whom Paul wrote 
were different persons, and then surviving. That some 
of them remained is probable, because Polycarp, as ap- 
pears by this letter, was hving at both periods,, and 
survived the latter, we presume forty or fifty years. 
If the terms presbyter and bishop were promiscuously 
used to denote the same office, at the beginning of the 
second century, which is satisfactorily clear; such was 
that of Polycarp; and if those presbyters were lay- 
men, it is evinced, contrary to all belief, that he was 
no other. But hitherto for the existence of a lay pres- 
byter, we have found not a word, sentiment, or impli- 
cation. His profession of sorrow on account of Va- 
]ens, who had beeu '''■made a ^re^fey/er" with them at 
some period,^ and afterwards lapsed into error, de- 
termines the word presbyter to its official, not an ap- 
pellative meaning. The admission of the judicial au- 
thority of those presbyters over their co- presbyter 
Valens, is not merely a renunciation of authority in 
the writer, but a proof, that the cognizance of the 



•^ Philipp. Ch. i. V. 1- 

f Three paragraphs are here supplied by the Latin translation, 
**Nimis contristatus sum pro Valente qui presbyter factus est ali- 
quando apud vos, quod sic ig-noret is locum, qui datus est ei," &c. 
How and by whom he had been made a presbyter is not shown. 
"BMi factus est implies a passiveness on his part. He was probably 
made a presbyter by imposition of hands, [;^6/§o6i«!r/A] and the office 
having been given [^datus] to him, [apud] with the Philippians, it 
was, we suppose by election [;^£/goTov;*.] An argument, neverthe- 
less, must not be founded upon the uncertain basis of a translation. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES- 11 

cause lay not in their c;po£ff7os', presiding presbyter, if 
they had one. There is a mischievous tendency to 
personal conflicts and confusion, implied in the suppo- 
sition, that one presbyter should be amenable to ano- 
ther as an individual officer in equal degree. The pe- 
tition that he should not be treated as an enemy, is ad- 
dressed to the presbyters as such; the power of the 
presbyters in council, or presbytery is therefore in this 
instance plainly implied. But if every member of the 
church at Philippi, should be understood to have been 
thus advised with respect to Valens, then the congre- 
gation, as such, was supposed to possess the power of 
censure and restoration. By neitlier interpretation is 
there the least possible ground, to imagine a disparity 
among presbyters, by a diversity of order, or a differ- 
ence of ordinations. 

Clement and Polycarp, were co-temporaries and 
survivors of the apostles; their representations are en- 
titled to the highest credit, and deserve to be received, 
as unprejudiced exhibitions of apostolical , practice, 
prior to the corruptions introduced by clerical ambi- 
tion. Successors of, but not apostles; presbyters in 
confessed parity with their co-presbyters; exalted only 
by superior knowledge, grace, talents, usefulness, and 
humility; they must, we suppose, have presided in the 
churches at Rome and Smyrna, but merely as vi^o^aloti^^ 
for other precedence in the officers of a church, does 
not as yet appear. Among presbyters, they have in- 
timated no diversity of order, degree, ordination, or 
power. Every presbyter was, by his commission, 
equally set over and bound to feed and govern the 
flock.^ Their authority w^as from the w^ord of God. 
The apostles could transfer none from themselves; 
they delegated no power; as servants of Christ they 
selected those, who appeared to be best qualified to ex- 
ercise the offices necessary in a church. By imposing 

S :T§o/5-7«^tsvo?, 1 Thess. v. 12. tzpaifMtiyiiv — tv Z (jnroifAVla)^ vfActs 
TO 'o-ytvfAA TO ayiov 3^i]o iTrio-noTm;. Ac.xx.l7, 28. — nyov/uivoi. Heb. 
xii. 7. 



12 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

their hands, no virtue proceeded from them; they pray- 
ed, that his spirit might rest upon the person, and gave 
in charge to the people the relation they should stand 
in to him, and the Holy Spirit confirmed by his gifts, 
the ofl^ice thus derived from the head of the church. 
The ordainer could neither enlarge, nor abridge the 
power incident to the office. Whatever misconstruc- 
tions of the presbyterial office, have obtained ; it is, 
and always will be, the highest ordinary office in a 
Christian church; and no presbyter, who is officially 
such, can be less than a bishop and authorised to in- 
struct, govern, administer ordinances, and ordain, at 
least, conjunctly with his co-presbyters of the same 
presbytery, or council. Not a single word, fact, or even 
circumstance has occurred in the testimony, prior to 
the year one hundred and sixteen, adverse to these po- 
sitions. From all that can be collected from the letter 
of Polycarp, and also from that of Clement, there exist- 
ed not at Rome, Corinth, Smyrna, Philippi or elsewhere, 
any office superior to that of presbyter, nor a presbyter 
inferior to the clerical office. No canonical, or re-or- 
dination is heard of till long after this period. Thus 
far not a tittle of proof has appeared to justify either 
the opinion of those, who would elevate the «tfpo£o7o7fs', 
ruling eld'ers, to a superior order; or of those, who 
would depress them to a grade inferior to that of the 
elders who laboured in word and doctrine. The practice 
of the four churches, concerned in the two letters 
mentioned, may be supposed to have afforded at that 
time, a fair sample of all others. What errors sprang 
up in the Christian societies after the period of this 
letter, and within the protracted life of this holy man, 
in relation to officers and government, must be defer- 
red at present. The successful discrimination of 
changes forbids all anticipations, except what are in 
support of the genuineness and credibility of the evi- 
dence adduced. The account given of Polycarp by his 
church, if credible, is therefore of future consideration; 
and the testimonies of him by Irenseus, though deemed 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 13 

a cotemporary, are at the distance of almost a cen- 
tury from the time, towards which our inquiries have 
been directed, and may perhaps appear, when exam- 
ined, somewhat accommodated to later views and cir- 
cumstances. 

Papias, who flourished about the period of Polycarp*s 
letter, has been called his companion; but resided at 
Hierapolis.^ He wrote several books, which have 
perished : except a fragment, which may be translated 
thus: " I shall esteem it no labour to set in order be- 
fore you, the things I have rightly learned from the 
elders, (c^apa •r'coi/«p£ff,3i;7jp«v,) and well remember, and 
shall confirm their truth by my explanations. For I 
am not, like the most, pleased with those, who say 
many things, but with such as teach the truth: nor with 
persons, who relate injunctions, which are unusual; 
but with such as speak those things, which were by 
the Lord delivered to faith, and which proceed from 
the truth itself. If, on any occasion, some one came 
who had been a companion with those of former 
times, {a^sajBvlB^oi?,) I inquired lor the words of the el- 
ders {a^saSvlt^c^v;) what Andrew and what Peter might 
have said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James; 
or what John or Matthew, or what any other of the 
disciples, p^aSYpi^v of the Lord; and what things Aris- 
tion, and John the presbyter (tc^sg^vIb^o^^) and the dis- 
ciples (/ita9>7'r'at,) of the Lord are teaching {"kByovov), 
For the things which I received from books, did not so 
much profit me, as those from a voice living and pre- 
sent.'" 

Irenseus says, he was a hearer, [axovnlri^^) of John 
the apostle : which appears doubtful from the frag- 
ment. Nicephorus accounts him to have lived an 
apostolic life. Eusebius deemed him a man of cre- 
dulity, but of veracity; he has not only given the above 
quotation, but confirmed it, by asserting the existence, 
in his day, of two monuments at Ephesus, of John the 

^ Col. -v. 13. 

' Euseb. lib. iii. c. 12. Kicsplior'. lib. iii. c. 20. 
C 



14 THE PRIMITIVE COVER Jf ME JfT 

apostle and John the presbyter. He styles him the 
bishop of Hierapolis, ?v I'spartoT^^i, — ertioxorto^.^ The title 
of bishop given to men of the first and second centu- 
ries, by those of later times, is no argument of clerical 
disparity at the former period, when the word bore a 
different sense. This sophism is often played off, by 
presenting catalogues of ancient bishops made for a 
different purpose; its seeming force springing wholly 
from modern associations. That Papias was a bishop 
in the sense of Eusebius and Nicephorus is destitute 
of proof; he has discovered no regard to clerical ti- 
tles, desirous only of the truth, and with a simplicity 
almost pecuHar to the days of primitive purity, he de- 
nominates the apostles themselves but seniors apsajSvlipo^ 
in the gospel. That this word was intended by him 
appellatively and that the apostles were consequently 
named without a title, appears from his attributing 
KSpE6jSvlspo^ to the younger John in its official sense to 
distinguish him from the beloved disciple. Eusebius, 
enforcing the same discrimination, denominates the 
apostle an evangelist sva^yeUd'tri^ , the younger John a 
presbyter; the one being a preacher unto the world, 
the other a presbyter of a particular church, not a 
layman, for he was a teacher of Papias whom Euse- 
bius styles bishop of Hierapohs. 

Thus does it appear, that apostle, evangelist, presby- 
ter, and for the same reason, bishop, were anciently 
used according to the forces of the terms, and also 
predicated respectively in their official senses. John 
was an apostle by commission, in his labours an evan- 
gelist, and an elder by age. The younger John was 
an elder, not, at least comparatively, in age, but by 
office. James was an apostle by his commission, ap- 
pellatively an elder and bishop; it being expedient, 
that he should maintain a continued oversight in the 
church at Jerusalem. Timothy was by office an evan- 
gelist, yet was occupied for a time in the oversight of 
the church at Ephesus. Every officer in advanced 

k Valesius, the annotator, supposes this to be an interpolation. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 15 

age was an elder; and every one, but the deacon, was 
a bishop. In the fragment of Papias, nothing appears 
contrary to the simph'city of the Scriptures; but what- 
ever can be eUcited from it, accords with the condition 
of the primitive churches in the first part of the se- 
cond century. Clement in the first has decided in lan- 
guage, affirmative and exclusive, for two offices in a par- 
ticular church; according to Polycarp and Papias, who 
are the only witnesses known to us, in the first part of 
the second century, the offices were the same. Every 
thing, therefore, hitherto, exhibits the office of elder, 
in a particular church, as the only ordinary teacher, 
equally without superiority and inferiority. 



SECTION III, 

The representations of Justin Martyr not only respectable for his learning and 
character, hut disinterested. — TJie ruling elder Trpaa-lac blesses the eucha- 
ristic elements, and the deacons carry them to the communicants. — This 
testimony is that of a martyr, given to the emperor, in behalf of Christendom, 

' and renewed in a second apology. — The Trpaa-laia- among the Ephori held 
the same grade, as the rest. — The letter of the church of Smyrna. — The 
fragments of Hegesippus. — The Trpoicrloos or primus presbyter, was at an 
early period distinguished by the name iTricTKOTrcs at first common to aU 
presbyters. 

Did there exist in the middle of the second century, 
more than two kinds of officers ? or were elders then 
of different kinds? These must be our inquiries in 
this section. Polycarp was now in extreme old age ; 
Irenseus, a youth ; Athenagoras, Mclito, and Theophi- 
lus of Antioch, commencing public life; and Justin 
Martyr, a Gentile, but Christian philosopher, standing 
but to fall in the front of the battle. He, our almost 
solitary witness for this period, received his Greek 
education at Alexandria, in Egypt, and was succes- 
sively a Stoic, Peripatetic, and Platonist. Occupied 
in contemplation in a place of retirement near the 
shore of the sea, he was abruptly encountered, and 
effectually vanquished by an aged Christian. The in- 
teresting and ingenious arguments are detailed in his 
dialogue with Trypho. Left to his o\^^n reflections, 
favored with no other interview^ wounded by the ar- 
row of conviction, he sought and found his cure in 
Christianity, the only true philosophy. Mingling his 
old attachments with evangelic charity, he indulged 
the hope, that Socrates and others had also imbibed, 
at least, the spirit of the Gospel, in a humble degree. 

Retaining the habh, he exhibited a singular specta- 
cle, a philosopher bleeding in the cause of Christ.* 

a «y pm/uM <pi\o(ro<^a)V ku.i rots \oyot( kai rmSiu koli rcto-^h/unri.'-^ 

Photius, 303. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 17 

The opinions of one, never an ecclesiastic, must 
have been viewed v^ith less prejudice. Familiar v^^ith 
men of science, the influence of his character on those 
in power, rendered him important to the suffering 
cause. His conversion we place at A. D. 132, and his 
martyrdom at 163, without danger of material error. 
In his dialogue he mentions his apology. The pas- 
sage is found in that, which has been placed last, but 
was the first. This appeal to the understanding, and 
feelings of the discreet, but mistaken, Antoninus Pius, 
A. D. 140, whilst the blood of those, whom it defended, 
was flowing under a merciless persecution, procured 
a temporary respite. 

In his description of public worship,^ after men- 
tioning prayers and the fraternal salutation, he says — 
" There is brought to him who presides over the 
brethren, toi rcpoEGtcotc tw ah^'K^av,, bread and a cup of 
water, and wine, and he, taking them offers up praise 
and glory to the Father of the universe, through the 
name of the Son and the Holy Ghost, and renders 
thanks for these, his gifts. At the close of his petition 
and thanksgivings, all the people present say Amen ; 
which, in the Hebrew language, signifies may it be so. 
And he who presides, having given thanks, svxapieavtos: 
Be -tov Ttposfftoito^, and the whole assembly having ex- 
pressed their assent, they who are called among us 
deacons, Siaxovoi, distribute the bread, and the wine 
and water, to each of those who are present, to par- 
take of that which has been blessed. Also they carry 
to those who are not present." 

His birth in Samaria, the natural acumen of his un- 
derstanding, his philosophical education at Alexan- 
dria, Christian instruction, through eight years, in 
provincial Asia, and religious associations at Rome, 
are pledges, that Justin knew the forms of Christian 
worship. His piety, character, and death, secure to 
his testimony the claim of indefectible veracity. The 
high ground which he assumed, as the advocate of 

b 2 Apolog, 97. Oxford edition. 1 Apol. 127. 
c* 



18 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the whole proscribed church, before the Emperor and 
Senate of the civihzed world, rendered every word a 
matter of hfe and death, and required absolute verity. 
Under all these appalling circumstances he testifies 
that two orders only officiated, a president, Ttpossta^f 
who taught, prayed, and administered the eucharist, 
and deacons, who distributed the symbolical elements. 
Lay-elders are not named, but there is an express 
assignation to deacons of the work now thought by 
some to belong peculiarly and exclusively to them ; 
a violent presumption that there were no such officers. 

The same word ?tpo£ si-cos', ruling elder, deemed the 
principal and almost solitary scriptural proof of 
this lay order, is here the clerical character. If Paul 
meant by it a lay presb3/ter, it is strange that, in forty 
years from John's death, the ruling elder rtposfstoi^ has 
become, throughout the church, the presiding officer 
in every charge — the mouth of the people unto God ; 
and standing in the place of Jesus Christ, takes, blesses, 
and administers the memorials of his body and blood, 
devolving his own original employment, if a lay elder, 
upon deacons who had been solemnly ordained, tO' feed 
the poor. 

If the " brethren" adsTi^iov over whom he presided 
were the people, his authority may be referred to 
his office as presbyter ; if they were his co-presbyters, 
or bishops, for such existed in all the churches, and 
have appeared in those of Smyrna, of Philippi, Co- 
rinth, and Rome, he was that primus inter pares, who 
from necessity exists in all presbyteries, councils, 
assemblies, and other public bodies. Among presby- 
ters the presidency rested not on ordination, but a 
voluntary concession, by reason of seniority, talents, 
grace, or influence. E7ti,(jxo7io$ is a word of stronger 
import : the Tt^oEc-tio;: far from having the oversight of 
his copresbyters, retained only the first sta?iding in the 
same order. If according to those suppositions letters 
too zealously attributed to the venerable Ignatius, the 
sHisxoTtog had presided in every church, Justin must 
c ITim.v, 3. 17. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 19 

have known it, and used the term, or have been justly- 
chargeable with misrepresentation. But the term, 
bishop, being equally applicable to every presbyter, as 
having the oversight of the flock, could not have dis- 
tinguished the presiding bishop from his brethren, at 
whose head he had been placed by common consent, 
for reasons founded in utility. In the same apology, 
precious to the ancient Christians for its timely aid in 
a season of extreme suffering, it is again pubhshed to 
the world, that, " upon that, which is called the day 
of the Sun, there is an assembling together of all of the 
respective cities, or residing in the country ; and the 
, recollections of the apostles, and the writings of all the 
prophets are read, as long as time permits ; when the 
reader has ceased, he who presides, o rt^osstcos: by a 
discourse, 5ta T^oyov, admonishes and exhorts, to the 
imitation of things that are good. We then all rise 
up together, and offer prayer, and as already men- 
tioned, when the prayer is ended, bread is brought, 
and wine and water. And he who has the Jirst place, 
Ti^osatiog, again prays and gives thanks, according to 
his ability, hari 8vvafx.o^ a/vtoj, and the people add their 
approbation, saying, Amen. And a distribution and 
delivery of the things, upon which thanks have been 
given, are m.ade to all, and sent to those who are ab- 
sent, by the deacons."^ He then speaks of the lift- 
ing of a collection for widows, orphans, prisoners, 
and strangers, — ^which is deposited rtapa 'tM Tt^osc^Tfioti, 
with the president. 

Had error obtained in the former description of 
worship, Justin would probably have discovered 
it in his second effort. If a martyr for the truth, 
which he records, is not worthy of credit, sincerity 
can offer -no higher pledge. He has a second time 
described the officers of a Christian church, employed 
in the most solemn act of public worship, the euchar- 
ist, and again he has said they were the Ttpostf-r'ws' scil. 
7i^s6j5vTf£po^, presiding elder, and the Staxovov, deacons. 

It were weakness ■ o expect him to deny the exist- 
d 2 Apolog. 99, Oxford edit. X Apol. 13, 12. 



20 THE TRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ence of lay presbyters, an order which had then never 
been named, or, as we suppose, thought of. The 
reader of the lessons may have been a copresbyter, 
or any w^ell taught member of the Church. The pre- 
siding presbyter expounded and applied the lesson 
orally ; his prayers w^ere also unv^ritten, because " ac- 
cording to his ability ;" and he alone administered the 
eucharist, the deacons distributing the symbols to the 
people. The word rtposcstoi^ being a participle, and 
written without its noun, determines only an order, of 
which this person stood first. Every Christian knew 
7«:p£ff/3i;'z^£pos', elder, was intended; and other readers from 
the force of the term, must have understood, from its 
application to Archons and Ephori, that an order, 
ecclesiastic and peculiar to a single worshipping as- 
sembly was meant. 

This history establishes the fact, that the elder, who 
ruled, 7ips(}^vtspo^ rtpoEcTT'cos', was the same who laboured 
in word xoTtiav ev %oyco^ and that ruling should be 
understood not of inferior duties, but of the presi- 
dency. 

In the writings of Clement, and Polycarp, it has 
appeared, that a plurality of presbyters, or bishops, 
existed at Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, and Rome ; and 
that these, with the deacons, were their only officers. 
In every regularly constituted church, the same or- 
ders appear, by the New Testament, to have been 
ordained. No instance has hitherto occurred of the 
erection of an office, or order, of higher authority, 
than that of presbyters, or bishops ; nor does there as 
yet, appear among them any disparity. One only in 
every church was the 7tpo£s:ta^, either designated by 
his copresbyters, or by the society. It would have 
been improper for Justin, in his description of the pub- 
lic eucharistic service, to have mentioned those pres- 

e 1 Tim. V. 17. Thus the Apostle Paul, also in 1 Thesal. v. 
12, by the word labouring rove KOTrtavTcL? in the word, and set over, 
KAt TTpocrct/usvouc, the church at Thessalonica, and admonishing 
them, icttt vovQirovTi;, evidently means the same persons and pres- 
byters, as appears by the omission of the article after the conjuac- 
tion, before the latter epithets. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 21 

byters, who, for the time present, acted no other part, 
than merely to partake with the people. Neither did 
the distinctive name describe, nor the work of him 
who presided, prove him to be of a superior order. 
Ahhough Tt^oiotio^ w^as used among the Lacedcemo- 
nians, for one of the Ephori, yet they possessed an 
equahty of power and grade. Annually elected by 
the people, they held the supreme authority, could 
summon before them, charge and pass judgment upon 
the king himself. The Ttpoffffcos' of the presbyters or 
bishops of a church, worshipping at the same time, in 
different places, in a city, was the nearest approach to 
diocesan episcopacy. Yet the term, by which he was 
distinguished from the other presbyters, being the 
very same that was used for the president of the moral 
censors of Sparta, who were of equal degree; and 
the term Jt^o^atoi^, by its own force, implying no more 
than the first place or station, and not a diversity in 
the kind of office, it was discovered by rising ambi- 
tion, to be necessary to abandon the w^ord, and adopt, 
as we shall soon find, the word B7iv6xo7io^ when a fur- 
ther distinction was intended. Neither was the TtpofcfT'ca^ 
of the Ephori clothed with the power of a dictator; 
nor his colleagues in office reduced to the condition of 
subordinate, and merely dependent counsellors. In 
like manner the ?tpoacfT'os' of presbyters was by no 
means vested with the sole power of ordaining and 
deciding, nor were his copresbyters in any church 
selected, merely to advise, or execute. 

The letter of the church at Smyrna, descriptive of 
the death of Polycarp, if genuine, falls into the middle 
part of this century. Pionius, as appears by its post- 
script, obtained it by a revelation made to him by 
Polycarp, long after his death. It represents that the 
martyr had a vision, by w^hich he was preadmonished 
of his martyrdom by fire ; that he was apprehended 
on Friday, brought on an ass to the city ; that he was 
accosted when coming to the place of suffering by a 
voice from heaven ; that, by a wonderful miracle, the 
flame encompassed him in a hollow circle and his 



22 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

body could not be burned, but afterwards vras wound- 
ed, and was, when dead, consumed by fire ; that an 
odour ascended like frankincense and rich spices ; that 
being pierced with a lance, a dove escaped, and the 
blood extinguished the fire. The pious and venerable 
Polycarp, in extreme old age, suffered martyrdom 
about the middle of the second century. Of this no 
one doubts ; and that many of the sorrowful circum- 
stances of it, may have been embodied in this won- 
drous letter, is possible ; but how much of it is true, 
must be submitted to every reader. Those who will 
compare that which is supposed to be the letter itself, 
with Eusebius, will see that even where he professes 
to give the words, he omits, interpolates, changes and 
mangles the letter, in a manner suited to destroy all 
confidence in the representations of Constantine's 
favored historian. The letter we believe, never 
mentions either the word presbyter or deacon. It 
purports to have been written by one church unto 
another, omitting the officers of both. In it the word 

bishop once occurs y^vo^^vo^ tTti^xoKo^ t'c tvi ev S^upv?! 

xaOouxtj^ £xx-Kvi6ia^' " Being a bishop of the Catholic 
church in Smyrna." That Polycarp was a presbyter, 
that every presbyter was a bishop, and that a plurali- 
ty of this order existed in every church, have been 
shown. We have also already ventured the supposi- 
tion that he was a Tt^osc-ti^^, presiding presbyter. For 
president, the term bishop was soon after this, substi- 
tuted. If t7ii6xo7to^ be so taken in this letter, against 
which we confess the omission of the article to be no 
argument, the anticipation is fatal to the genuineness 
of that sentence, and thrown into the scale, renders 
still hghter the credibility of the whole letter. 

The character of Hegesippus, a Jewish convert, 
who wrote five historical books, which have, except 
fragments, perished, has been doubted by many wri- 
ters, catholic and protestant. Also the circumstance 
that these fragments, except an irrelevant sentence 
preserved by Photius, have been derived from Euse- 
bius, and no doubt accommodated to the language of 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 23 

his own times, renders his evidence of little weight 
This historian introduces his quotation by tv Sta ^tTo,,^ 
in -which he discovers ; and then, proceeding in his own 
words, he says, " going to Rome he," Hegesippus, 
" fell in company with many bishops" — " and found 
them to hold the same doctrine." That the church of 
Corinth remained orthodox, sv tv opdcfj -Koyco, until the 
time of Primus' acting as bishop, tTtLGxoTiovvto^, in Co- 
rinth." — " Being in Rome I abode until the succession 
of Anicetus, whose deacon Eleutherus was; Soter 
succeeded Anicetus, and Eleutherus, Soter." 

"After James, the just, died, as his Lord had done, 
for the same word, Simon the son of Cleopas, his 
uncle, was chosen bishop, whom all preferred, be- 
cause he was the Lord's next kinsman."^ 

The denominating presbyters, bishops, is unexcep- 
tionable, for such they w^ere. That one of them pre- 
sided in every church from the apostles' days is 
equally certain. To reckon up the succession by 
these, was in no wise improper. But all these things 
fall far short of proving a diversity of office among 
presbyters, or a difference of order. 

An apostle, as such, possessed powers and had 
duties to accomplish beyond those of a presiding pres- 
byter. We ought not therefore to conclude, that, be- 
cause the Scriptures have not mentioned the travels 
of James, all his labours were confined to Jerusalem. 
The numbers sometimes mentioned to be there, pro- 
bably include visitants coming up to the feasts. There 
is no evidence of an extension of his authority over 
Judea, though the thing is possible; or that there were 
then different places of worship of Christians in Jeru- 
salem. And if there had been, and he had exercised 
a general authority, it was that of an apostle. That 
the apostles should have successors in their ordinary 
powers, to teach, baptize, ordain, censure, &c., may 
be fairly inferred from the promise of Christ's pre- 
sence, which could only be divine, annexed to their 

f Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. iv, ch. 22. 
g Ibid, and ]^^^cepho^. Cal. lib. iv. c, 7. 



24 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

commission. That these duties were to be performed 
by the presbyters, or bishops of every particular 
church, is capable of positive proof That in every 
presbytery there came to be a president, is undeniable. 
But it remains to be proved that such officer received 
a second ordination; either by scriptural authority, 
or in the apostles' days ; ^ or that the presbyters 
of a church were so ordained, as that one species of 
them was authorized to preach, and another restrained 
from the exercise of such power. 

Having now passed the middle of the second cen- 
tury and found one kind only of elders, and these the 
only ministers of the word, we may infer that such is 
the fair construction of the JVeio Testament, on the ordi- 
nary officers of the church. The innovations which 
we are soon to witness in their gradual progress, were 
unauthorized and consequently mere ?iuUities. Though 
every denomination has on some point erred, and the 
original names of the officers have been often changed 
the providence of God has in every age preserved the 
two orders, and a legitimate administration. But if 
the outward forms had all perished, being only means 
to an end, and consequently of minor importance, the 
characteristics of his true church have remained, 
*' righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 

h. The Apostolical constiiuiions need no refutation. The Apos- 
tolkal traditions, referred to by Hippclitus, we design to consider, 
\^'hen he arrives, in the first part of the thii-d century. 



SECTION IV. 

Christianity was taught as philosophy by Tatian and his preceptor Justin, both 
laymen. — JTie letter of Vienne and Lyons, differently represented; Pothinus 
a presbyter, TTgoitrlai, and Irenoeus the same. — Melito and Athenagoras 
professed the new philosophy, and Hermias wrote '■''The Discordance of Phi- 
losophers." — Iheophihis of Antioch speaks of no officer in the church. — 
Irenoeus was a presbyter, at Lyons, hitherto there is no other higher ordina- 
tion, of office. — The evidence given by Irenceus makes presbyter and bishop 
the same office, and that the succession from the apostles tvas by presbyters. 



That "destructive superstition" which Tacitus had 
pronounced almost repressed by the Neronian perse- 
cution, surviving also the edicts of his successors, ob- 
tained some respite in the last thirty years of the se- 
cond century, the period assigned to this section. The 
philosophic Pliny had expressed a sentiment, too pre- 
valent in the second century, that Christianity was a 
crime fit to be expiated by death. Entitled to no legal 
toleration, though sometimes screened by the ignor- 
ance or caprice of a Galleo, the profession could be 
avowed only at the hazard of life. The only possible 
motive to accept or exercise an office in the church, 
under such circumstances, must have been duty, not 
dignity; conscience, not interest. Paul had saved his 
Hfe, by claiming to teach the Athenians the knowledge 
of their own God. Many, with more success than 
Socrates, taught, bearing no office among Christians, 
a philosophy deemed to have originated among bar- 
barians. An appetite for saving knowledge values 
offices, as means subordinate to a higher end, the ac- 
quisition of truth. Every Christian applauds Justin, 
receiving, in the habit of a philosopher, the crown of 
martyrdom. 

D 



26 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERXMENT 

Tatian was his disciple, axporflr^^ hearer, says Irenseus, 
who charges him with apostacy* after the death of 
his patron. "An oration to the Greeks," is the only 
surviving production of Tatian. Written with ele- 
gance and point, and not far distant from orthodoxy, 
it pleases, but contains nothing that bears upon the 
present inquiry. He calls himself, in a philosophic 
sense, o. preacher of the truth, xt^^vxa t7;$ axt^diiaf; (p. 64.) 
certainly neither as Noah nor Paul, of whom the same 
expression is used. After representing himself born 
among the Assyrians, and educated among the Greeks, 
he again says, that he preached xT^pvllsiv, professing to 
know God and his works. The good sense of the " Ora- 
tion" is justly commended by Clement of Alexandria, 
and by Origen. Justin was a philosopher, not a pres- 
byter; yet he taught: and Tatian, a hearer of Justin, 
preached, but as a layman. If laymen did, at this pe- 
riod, preach without censure,^ it is not probable that 
there were presbyters restricted from a privilege so 
common. 

Large fragments of a letter, purporting to have been 
written by the churches of Vienne, and Lyons, in 
Gaul, have been preserved by Eusebius and Nicepho- 
rus. It describes some most affecting scenes of suffer- 
ings, in the persecution which took place, it is said, in 
the 17th year of Mark Antonine, A. D. 177. There has 
been nothing found in the letter concerning our subject, 
except the mention of the offices of two of the martyi's. 
The first is of Sanctus, who is styled a deacon from 
Vienne, Siaxovog a^o Bcfw^^s': the other of the venerable 
Pothinus, who died in his ninetieth year, in prison, from 
the abuse he received at his trial. He is said in the 
letter, according to Eusebius, to have been " intrusted 
•with the ministry of the episcopate in Lyons,^'' o trv Btaxovtav 
fij$ trlvSxoTiYi^ sv T^vySvva TiiTCi^lsvfJitvo^, NiccphorUS has 

given the same portion of the letter, with more sim- 
plicity in these words: " Pothinus, a minister of iJw 

* Iren. lib. i. Ch. 30. 31. — {ittostac tth; tz)t\na-tAi. 
t» TertuUian's complaint was afterwards, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 27 

church at LyonS,^^ ILoenA/o^ 8s o Siaxovo^ tf^^ T^vydwcov sxxJ^Tjai- 

a?." If Nicephorus wrote from the letter itself, the 
last is the truth; or if he compiled from Eusebius, his 
was probably still the original reading both of Euse- 
bius and the letter ; and the term Siaxovos; may have 
been subsequently changed into Scaxoviav, and zTticxoTtri^ 
inserted. We have shown, in a former section, that 
Eusebius was unfaithful in his quotations of ancient 
writings. That Pothinus was the rt^osj-Vcos', or presiding 
presbyter, and consequently a bishop of the church at 
Lyons, is very possible.^ The church appears to 
have been small, and the cause of truth an object of 
hatred and contempt, in that region ; it is, therefore,, 
improbable that a diversity in orders, which, as yet, 
existed nowhere else, should have originated there. 
Also, Irenseus, who was a presbyter in the same place, 
will presently be found to have known no difference 
between presbyter and bishop. As there appears in 
this letter no order above that of presbyter, which hith- 
erto always had the oversight, so we find no lay pres- 
byters. 

Melito of Sardis wrote, about A. D. 182, several 
works, the titles of which Eusebius has preserved, with 
a fragment of his Apology for what he calls the new 
philosophy, and an important catalogue of the books of 
the Old Testament. But there remains nothing from 
him on our subject. 

Athenagoras is a writer who also falls within our pre- 
sent period. The proofs in support of his Apology for 
Christians, and of his Discourse on theResurrection are 
few and modern ; yet no one can read the book, and 
doubt its genuineness. The Apology, being directed to 
Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, sufficiently deter- 
mines its own date. Written to idolaters, its arguments 

c Mons. Blondel (Apol. p. 23 — 32) has prored, that it was nine 
years after Irenseus had been placed in the chair, TrgceloAAbiSe^tit, 
of Pothinus, a bishop and martyr, at Lyons, when he was repre- 
sented in a letter written by that church to Eleutherius, as their 
brother and a presbyter of the church, a>{ Tr^io-^t/lt^oy utaKiKricti, — 
Euseb. Lib. v. C. 4. 



28 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT T 

are as they should be, chiefly drawn from reason. This 
writer styles himself an Athenian,^ and a philoso- 
pher, and the Apology speaks itself the work of a Chris- 
tian, and well suited to its period. His arguments, in 
the discourse concerning the resurrection, are worthy 
of attention even in the present day. Of church of- 
ficers, we have been able to find no mention in either 
of his productions. 

The tract of Hermias, called the " Irrisio Gentium," 
or " Ata(ji;^|ttos'," which is m.ore properly the discordance 
of philosophers, is of uncertain time, but very ancient ; 
and is probably the genuine, though unsupported pro- 
duction of a Christian. The various opinions of .the 
nature of the soul, the chief good, and our future con- 
dition, are well contrasted, and with great effect. It 
terminates abruptly, but not before it has well estab- 
lished the position with which it commenced, that 
" The Tvisdcm of this world is foolishness with God" It 
touches not our subject. 

There are three small books, written by Theophi- 
lus of Antioch to his friend Autolycus, an idolater. 
The writer Jiad been himself a heathen, and appears 
to have had much Greek learning. The first is a 
general defence of the nature and perfections of the 
true God, of his work of creation, and of the resur- 
rection. The second is against idolatry, and the dif- 
ferent opinions of philosophers ; and compares the 
cosmogony of the poets with that of Moses. He 
speaks of the "Trinity (T^taSos-) of God, and of the Lo- 
gos, and of wisdom." He says it was the Logos who 
appeared in Paradise; and though he describes him as 
an effect, yet represents him as being at the first in 
God. In the third, after vindicating Christians from 
aspersions, he compares the profane with the Scriptu- 
ral chronology. There is no claim of an ecclesiasti- 
cal office by the writer, nor even the mention of any 

d Phillip Sidetes (apud Dodwell, p. 489) says, that he studied 
the Scriptures on purpose to confute them, but became convinced 
of their trutli. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 29 

in either of the books. They bear all the marks of 
genuineness. His death has been placed at periods 
somewhat different, but the weight of probability- 
seems to determine it to about the year of Christ 182, 
which is but two years later than the death of Mar- 
cus Aurelius, expressed in the end of his third book, as 
the last period of his chronological calculation. 

Iren^eus was a Greek of Asia Minor, for he remem- 
bered there to have seen, when a youth, the venerable 
Polycarp. He spent his advanced life in Gaul, at 
Lyons. That he w^as a presbyter, we learn from his 
own church. That he received any other ordination, 
or held any other office, there is no competent proof, 
nor have we found any evidence of such occurrence 
in his day. That he was a " disciple of Polycarp," 
and was " raised to the episcopal chair" upon the death 
of Pothinus, ought neither to be assumed, nor granted 
without evidence brought from the second century. 
That he died a martyr, has been often said, but gratui- 
tously, because asserted too lately. His death may 
be placed with sufficient correctness, after many vain 
efforts at precision on the point, about the commence- 
ment of the third century. He wrote five books 
against the wild opinions of Valentinus, and other 
Gnostics. Of these a Latin version censured by diffe- 
rent writers as feverish, faulty, and barbarous; and 
some Greek fragments, in Eusebius, Epiphanius, John 
Damascenus and Nicephorus, together with some 
portions of letters, yet remain. The moral endow- 
ments of this father were much greater than his intel- 
lectual. Under all disadvantages, the facts, so far 
as given from his own observation, are worthy of 
belief. 

In a fragment of an epistle written to Florinus on 
the subject of the errors of Valentinus, and preserved by 
Eusebius, he says : " These doctrines, they who were 
presbyters before us, lu Tt^o ^fn^ jt^s^^vtB^oi, and who 
were the followers of the apostles, never delivered 
unto thee. If that blessed and apostolic presbyter 
Polycarp, had heard any such thing, &c. he would 
d2 



30 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

have said," &c. In the fragment of a letter to Victor 
at Rome, who had attempted to cause the Asiatic 
churches, on account of a diversity in the observance 
of Easter, to be excommunicated, Irenseus possessing 
equal authority and more prudence, says, " Those 
presbyters vv^ho, before Soter presided over that 
church which you now govern, h t^o Xtolt^^o^ 7<^s(j^vlsioi, 

h rt^oalavlss! 't'^q? sxx'kiqcia^ ^f vvv a^'/^y?/, &C. I Speak of Ani- 

cetus, and Pius, and Hyginus, w^ith Telesphorus and 
Sixtus, they neither observed it themselves, nor did 
they require those who were under them. Those who 
were presbyters before you, who did not observe the 
•custom of the Asiatic churches, ot f«7 tTi^ovvls^ o't-^rgo 
aov -^gsa-^vtBgoi sent the eucharist to those from other 
churches, who did observe it. Neither did Polycarp 
persuade Anicetus to observe it, who alleged that he 
ought to maintain the custom of the presbyters, who 

had erone before hiilU, ^yiv o-wiiBuctv TcovTr^o cLvrovTrgicrlZvle^aiy." 

By these letters it is clear that Polycarp, and the 
predecessors of Victor, who are in modern times in 
the catalogue of popes, were presbyters ; and conse- 
quently other Christian churches could have had no 
higher offi<:ers than the Trgzo-f^vligoi Tr^ocrlxvlec, presiding 
presbyters. To these were attributed the continuance 
of the succession from the apostles. To them resort 
was had for the tradition of the custom in relation to 
Easter. That these presbyters were bishops, no one 
will deny ; they w-ere consequently not laymen. The 
Papal predecessor, neither possessed infallibility, nor 
even superiority over Irenseus, who in this letter writ- 
ten in presence of his brethren, ads%<pcov, in Gaul, thus 
arraigned his conduct. The term presbyter, so often 
repeated in these letters, may be taken sometimes ap- 
pellatively, but then the persons so denominated have 
received no official designation. Its connexion also 
with the epithet ?rgo<r7*v7«?, presiding, the expression 
ewroa-Tox/jtec Tr^ic/^uligoi, and the Uncertainty of such de- 
scriptions, as, " those who were old men before you^^ show 
the official sense to have been at least somedmes de- 
signed. If the correptions intended in these letters, 



OF CHRISTIAN- CHURCHES. 31 

should be assigned as a reason for the omission of titles, 
yet justice and truth required, that their offices in the 
church should have been fairly recognized, had differ- 
ent orders of preachers then existed. 

Speaking of the unwillingness of the heretics to be 
bound, either by the Scriptures or by the traditions of 
the churches, he says : (lib. iii. c. 2, s. 2.) " When 
we appeal to that tradition which is from the apostles, 
and is preserved in the churches, through the succes- 
sions of the presbyters, per successiones presbyter or urru, 
they oppose traditions, saying, that they are wiser, 
not only than the presbyters, but even than the apos- 
tles." That by presbyters here, are meant officers, 
seems conclusively established by their successions. 
These were necessarily described by the successive 
primif or Trpoisrlali?, In the next chapter he observes : 
" It is easy for all who wish to see the truth, to behold 
in every church the traditional doptrines of the apos- 
tles announced in all the w^orld, and we can enume- 
rate those, w^ho by the apostles were ordained, instituti 
suntf bishops, episcopi, in the churches, and the succes- 
sors, (or successions,) of them, even to ourselves; 
who taught no such thing ; nor did they know what 
is doted about by these. For if the apostles had 
known hidden mysteries, which they were teaching 
to higher proficients in secret, and without the know- 
ledge of the rest, they would especially have delivered 
them to those to whom they committed the churches. 
For they earnestly desired that they should be perfect 
in all things, and irreprehensible, whom they were 
leaving as successors, delivering up their own place 
of government, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tra* 
dentes." The very same traditions and successions, 
here referred to bishops, were, in the next preceding 
chapter predicated expressly of presbyters. If, there- 
fore, the passage in this chapter be taken alone, as it 
has sometimes been, and accounted " the testimony 
of Irenseus," it will, though true in the sense of the 
writer, speak what he never intended ; at least, it will 
do 60 in the eyes of those who understand the term 



32 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

bishop in their own modern acceptation. Those, 
therefore, whom later times have elevated into dio- 
cesan bishops, were, in the days of Irenaeus, bishops 
only as they w^ere presbyters. When enumerated in 
successions, because presiding presbyters in particu- 
lar churches, they must have been ordained in the 
same manner as other presbyters ; since there is no 
evidence that there was as yet any but one ordina- 
tion of elders. To represent the magistenum which 
was given to officers, indifferently called presbyters 
and bishops, as an authority given to bishops over 
presbyters, is to adopt a conclusion without premises. 
To say that the successicn and mastership affirmed by 
Irenseus of bishops, who were presbyters, are a proof, 
that bishops in the modern sense, were intended by 
him, is the peiitio principii, or weakness of begging the 
question. 

The frequent mention, made by this writer, of the 
uninterrupted successions in several of the principal 
churches, does not appear to have proceeded from 
his respect to the dignity, or even to the importance 
of such presidential authority in the respective par- 
ticular churches, but from the certainty which he sup- 
posed to have been hereby attached to the traditional 
doctrines which he opposed to the heretics, against 
whom he wrote. The gift to Linus of the public work 
of the episcopate, or oversight, " iTria-x-oTr}!? xnrovpytct,^^^ be- 
ing understood of the individual church at Rome, 
" exx^.T^Gia,^^ expresses care and labor, not worldly 
honor. So Clement, who succeeded Linus, and Poly- 
carp, mentioned under the same circumstances in this 
chapter thought. That Irenseus intended no superiori- 
ty above presbyters is also clear ; because he after- 
wards assigns the episcopate, in so many words, to 
presbyters. " It is proper," says he, "to obey those 
presbyters, eis presbyieris, who are in the church, " Aw," 
these, who have succession from the apostles, as we 
have shown; who with the succession of the episco- 

e Lib. iii. C. 3. S. 2. 3. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 33 

pate, qui cum episcopatus successione, have received the 
sure gift of the truth, according to the will of the Fa- 
ther." ^ " Presbyters, ^^ it has been objected, may mean 
here, old men. But he contrasts those presbyters, v^^ith 
the heretical preachers, and speaks of them as being in 
the church, and having succession from the apostles, and 
with the succession of the episcopate, as having re- 
ceived the gift of the truth; that is, those sound doc- 
trines, which are taught in the original churches. On 
all which accounts, they were to be obeyed, rather than 
the heretics, who had none of these things. "Such 
presbyters, rt^fcfiSrVs^ws-," he says in another place, "the 
church nourishes, concerning whom also the prophet 
says, 'I will give your princes, a^x^^la^, in peace, and 
bishops, £7iL6xQ7im)^ in righteousness.' "^ The prophecy 
which he here introduces, in support of presbyters, ex- 
presses bishops. The succession from the apostles, 
which he sometimes affirms of bishops,^ he also ap- 
plied to presbyters: repeatedly thus discovering, that 
he accounted presbyters to be bishops, and bishops 
presbyters. When Irenaeus therefore makes presby- 
ters the successors of the apostles, and ascribes the 
episcopacy to presbyters, he maybe considered a very 
positive, as well as competent witness to establish, that 
there were no preachers, after the apostles and evan- 
gehsts, of an order higher than that of presbyters, nor 
any presbyters, of an inferior grade. 

In another place he speaks of bishops, as of those to 
whom the apostles delivered the churches, '^episcopi quibus 
Apostoli tradiderunt ecclesias,^^ and says that "the church 
every where preaches the truth." ^ In the next para- 
graph he observes, that "They who leave (relinquunt) 
the preaching of the church, praeconium ecclesice, accuse 
arguunt the holy presbyters of ignorance." The pres- 
byters named in this passage are spoken of as the only 
preachers then in the church, as having had succession 
from the apostles, as being the bishops to whom the 

f Lib. ir. C. 26. S. 2. e Lib. iv. C.26, S. 5. 

h Lib. iv. C. 33. i Lib. y. 20. 



34 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

church was committed, and evidently the highest of- 
ficers, at that period existing in the church. The wri- 
ter is speaking of his own day, and in the present 
lense, and therefore excludes the fond conceit of those 
who imagine that Irenseus used the terms bishop and 
presbyter promiscuously, only of those, who lived be- 
fore his day. It is plain that one preaching office only 
existed in this age. He mentions no preaching officer 
of his day either superior or inferior to a presbyter, 
and no class among presbyters who were not preach- 
ers. Neither do the works which remain of Irenseus, 
nor any other genuine writing in or before his time, 
appear to contain a solitary proof of any distinction 
in the office of presbyter. 

One passage only have we found in Irenseus to pre- 
sent a semblance of variance With the promiscuous 
use of presbyter and bishop. "The bishops and pres- 
byters who wei^e from Ephesus, and other neighbour- 
ing cities, being convened at Miletus, because he," 
Paul, "was hastening to spend Pentecost at Jerusa- 
lem," &c.^ In the history of "the Acts of the Apos- 
tles," the bishops only of a single "flock," or church 
are addressed, unless we suppose them placed over the 
whole Christian church. Consequently, they who are 
on that occasion called presbyters, are the same per- 
sons whom Paul denominates bishops. If the original 
of this inconsistent passage should ever emerge from 
darkness, and no article should follow the xav before 
n^sG^v-ts^oiv, the identical persons were at the same time 
bishops and presbyters. This hearsay evidence, for a 
version is no more, of a distinction in the only preach- 
ing office, appears in a faulty, barbarous and misera- 
ble translation, the original of which, at the place, has 
been lost. It not only stands alone, and is at variance 
with every book and testimony before it, but it is dia- 
metrically opposed to all the numerous representa- 
tions of Irenseus himself upon the same subject. And 
after all, if the distinction had been expressed by him, 

k Lib. iii. c. 14. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 35 

and had been true, it could have furnished not even the 
idea of a lay presbyter. 

That this passage in the translation falsely repre- 
sents the mind of Irenseus, plainly appears, when he 
afterwards expressly affirms the office of presbyter to 
be the highest in the church. "They who have also 
been accredited as presbyters by many, but serve their 
own pleasures and have no fear of God, in their hearts, 
who treat others reproachfully and are puffed up with 
the loftiness of the principal seat, et principalis conces- 
sionis tumore elati sunt, and do evil in secret, and say 
no one sees us, shall be condemned by the Word." 
This language plainly represents, that the presbyterial 
office was the highest in the church. If the rc^o£aluls$ 
presidents of churches are here intended, which is pro- 
bable, because he speaks of such in the persons of So- 
ter,Victor and others,in the present catalogue of popes, 
yet they are in this place expressly called presbyters. 
The testimony of Irenasus is therefore upon the whole 
decisive, that in his day, the office of presbyters was 
one and undivided, and the highest in the Christian 
church ; and consequently that no presbyters were lay- 
men. 



SECTION V. 

Clemeris Alexandrinus mentions, a TrgaloxAQiJ'ptitf first seat, in each presby- 
tery, and although he mentions presbyters, bishops and deacons, yet he shows 
there were but two orders. — Tertullian supports Justin's description of a 
eucharist and proves an antistes or president in the presbytery of each 
church; calls this highest priest the bishop, and affirms his right to grant 
baptism. — He makes a succession of such bishops from the apostles in the 
first churches a test of the orthodox faith which the heretics could not furnish. 

No alteration appears in the offices of the church 
during the second century, unless with the change of 
president, rt^osalca^, for frtcs-xo^tos- bishop, presbyters began 
to act by his appointment, or in his presence. Though 
not in writers hitherto examined, some traces of it are 
in the two assigned to this section; who lived in both 
centuries. 

Titus Flavilis Clemens is called Atheniensis because 
educated at Athens ; Alexandrinus, because instructed 
in the catechetical school of Pantsenus, and a presby- 
ter of the church at Alexandria. The preceptor of 
Origin, Alexander of Jerusalem, and others, he lived 
till the reign of Alexander Severus. He wrote an 
Admonition to the Greeks, The Pedagogue, Stromata, and 
What rich man can be saved ? He had a leaning to Gen- 
tile ethics, and the merit of works. On future pun- 
ishments he is erroneous. 

Church officers are mentioned incidentally; "For as 
much as we are shepherds, TtoLfisvsc; i^fisv, who govern 
Tt^oTjyovfisvoo, the churches, after the example of the good 
shepherd, and guard the sheep." * This pastoral office 
was that of the presbyter, for he was such. In strict 
accordance he speaks of the presbyter, as blessing 
with the imposition of hands. "Upon whom will the 

* Peda^og^e, lib. I p. 99. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 37 

presbyter, rt^so^vts^osy impose his hand, and whom will 
he bless?" ^ This ascription of blessing to presbyters 
supposes them of one kind and clerical. 

After citing from the epistle of Paul ten passages 
of practical duties, suited to various classes, he ob- 
serves; "numerous other precepts also, directed to 
select characters, have been written, in the sacred 
books, some to presbyters ^^£Cj|3v7f^ot?, some to bishops, 
and some to deacons, and others to widows.'"^ If 
presbyters be not here taken appellatively, the language 
makes a threefold discrimination, presbyters, bishops 
and deacons. It is possible that the author, in these 
precepts given from the New Testament, follows the 
language of the epistle to Titus, in which the same or- 
der is named, presbyters and bishops. (Ch. i. 5. 6. 7.) 
That there were but two orders, (Staxomc) presbyters 
and deacons, he expressly and repeatedly shows; and 
that there was a Tt^coloxadsS^ict or first seat, in each pres- 
bytery, he also asserts ; the meaning therefore of the 
passage is obvious. 

If from the circumstance, that this writer never 
enumerated deacons before presbyters, because an in- 
ferior order, it may be fairly inferred, that the colloca- 
tion of bishops after presbyters, in this sentence, evin- 
ces no inferiority in presbyters, we may be permitted 
to argue from the same circumstance, that he had no 
idea that presbyters were mere laymen. Whether, in 
this passage, Tt^sa^vls^ooi was intended only of those 
who presided over the rest of the bishops, or vice versa, 
lay presbyters are equally, and wholly omitted. 

In the numerous precepts addressed by the Scrip- 
tures to various characters, neither this author nor any 
other, has ever found a charge directed to lay pres- 
byters. 

Writing of marriage, he decides, that each man 
should be "the husband of one wife, whether he 

^ Pedagogue, Lib. iii, p. 248. 
c Pedagogue, Lib. iii. p. 264. 

E 



&» THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

be a presbyter, or a deacon, &c." x^^v Tt^sa^vts^oi 9j, xav 

$i,axovos .^ 

The word presbyter being substituted in this direc- 
tion, for bishop, used in Paul's epistle,^ and by himself 
in two other references to the same duty,^ proves that 
Clement understood the same by bishop and presby- 
ter, and could not have intended an inferior, or lay el- 
der. And if the promiscuous use of bishop and pres- 
byter can demonstrate a parity in the clerical, it must 
be equally effectual to exclude an inferior order. 

In another place he observes ; "That man is in fact 
a presbyter, Tt^saj^vls^o^, of the church and a true min- 
ister, Siaxovo?, of the counsel of God, who practices and 
teaches the things of the Lord; deemed righteous, not 
because ordained of men nor because a presbyter, but 
because a righteous man, he is numbered in the pres- 
bytery. And if here on earth he be not honoured with 
the first seat, Ttpc^loxaO sS^ia ^ri toy.7id^ he shall sit down on 
the twenty four thrones, judging the people, as John 
represents it in the Apocalypse.''^ This writer does 
not distinguish the presiding presbyter by the name 
irtgo£cf7co?, the word B7to6xo7ioi having begun to take its 
place, nevertheless the first implied other seats of the 
presbyters; and the first seat on a bench of presbyters 
is occupied by a presbyter, with no less certainty than 
the last. This president called 7t^oB6tcos in the New 
Testament, is henceforth denominated frttcrxortoj without 
any authorised diversity in order. In the same page, 
he says ; "Seeing that in the church, there are promo- 
tions of bishops, presbyters, deacons, Tiioxorcai sTtLoxortoiv 
it^aa^vl e^uiv dcaxovc^v, I supposc they are semblances of 
angelic glory, and of that economy which, the Scrip- 
tures say, awaits those, who live after the example of 
the apostles, in the perfection of righteousness, accord- 
ing to the gospel. These, the apostle writes, being 
raised up in the clouds, ScaxovTisscv, attend as deacons at 
the first ; afterwards they are associated with the pres- 

d Strom. Lib. lil. 464. e l Tim. iii. 2. 

f Strom. 459. 472. s Strom. Lib. vi. p. 667. 



OF CmHSTIAN CHURCHES. 39 

bytery, n^ea^le^t'f?, according to their proficiency 
jt^oxojtrjv, in glory ; for glory rises above glory, until 
they shall increase to a perfect man. 

^ This writer thought that the Saviour preached the 
gospel to departed spirits in hell : and believed, that 
future punishments were restorative. To the same hy- 
pothesis may be attributed his opinion of the value of 
the righteousness of the saints, both in this world and 
in the next, which is here described as measuring their 
prqficieficy in glory. His first comparison of the or- 
ders in the church, is unto those of the angels, of whom 
it has been remarked, there are but two, archangels 
and angels. He supposes also a discrimination in the 
next world between the glory of deacons, and of the 
•presbytery. But although he names bishops, presby- 
byters, and deacons on earth distinctly, he considered 
bishops and presbyters, as constituting the same pres- 
bytery, not diflfering in order; otherwise his compari- 
son has failed. Deacons are here also represented as 
entering into the presbytery, without an intermediate 
order. Clemens has consequently assigned no place 
to lay elders, either in the church militant, or triumph- 
ant. Having spoken of an instructive, and an obedi- 
ential service, he says; ^'In like manner also with re- 
spect to the church, the presbyters maintain the part 
which renders men better, ^£%lccolcx7jv sixova, and the 
deacons the ohedientml, vTtr^^slLxi^v. Both these ofiices, 
^avtas aa^co -r-aj Stajcovtaj, do the angels perform to God, 
according to the economy of earthly things."^ Thus 
again he expressly describes two, and but two orders 
in the church, presbyters and deacons ; the former to 
make men better^ the latter to aid in a subordinate de- 
partment. 

In this author we find a presbytery and deacons only, 
which is as forcible an exclusion of a third order, whe- 
ther superior or intermediate, as can be reasonably 

h Strom. Lib. vi. p. 667. 

i Strom. Lib. vii. p. 700. Some render ^iKnteJunv, dignified, 
others *' quze facit inyeliores." 



40 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

expected from a vt^riter who had no knowledge of a 
third. 

In his ^^What rich man can he savedT^^ Clemens re- 
lates that John the Apostle, observing a young man 
and turning to the bishop who presided over ally stu Ttact I'o 
xadsalM/o Tt^o^U'^as iTivcxorta, committed him to his care 
in the presence of the churchy stcl ttj^ £xx?.r^ciiai^ who re- 
ceived him tov bixoH-^^ov. John is then said to have re- 
turned, after repeating the charge, to Ephesus. And 
the presbyter taking home, 6 6s Tie,ea^vlee.os ava'Ka^cjv oixaSe, 
the young man that had been committed to his care, 
nourished, educated, and lost him. Here we have 
Clemens, no doubt in the language of his day, as it 
had been in that of the apostles, expressly denominat- 
ing the same person both a bishop and Si presbyter. Also 
John, returning, is represented to have addressed him 
as a bishop, " w sriLOxoTts ; retur7i to us your deposit.^* It 
thus appears, that a successor of the last apostle, and 
by John himself styled a bishop, was notwithstanding a 
presbyte7\ 

The sum of the testimony of Clemens, the most 
learned Christian in his age, is that there was one or- 
der only of officers in the church, above that of the 
deacons. He has not only not named subordinate, or 
lay presbyters, but has in the enumerations and de- 
criptions, excluded the possibility of the existence of 
such an order in his day. 

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, was born at 
Carthage, of a Roman family; his father being a cen- 
turion under a pro-consul of Africa. Educated in the 
learning of the Greeks and Romans, and becoming a 
Christian before the close of the second century, he 
flourished chiefly in the third, and preached at Car- 
thage many years. Offended at the unkind treatment, 
or at the irregularities of the orthodox, he preferred 
the severities of the Montanists. His language is 
harsh and obscene. Speaking in his apology of the 
worship of Christian assembhes, he observes; "Ap- 

k Ch. xlii. p. 8r. 



OF CHRISTIAIf CHURCHES. 41 

proved elders preside, who have obtained that honor, 
not by price, but by the evidence of their fitness."^ Aged 
men, as such never presided in the church. Also 
these are expressed to have obtained their standing by 
testimony, and were consequently chosen. We have 
seen in Justin, that the eucharist was dispensed by the 
^po£cj7o^, presiding presbyter. The same practice, 
though not mentioned by Clement, is recognised by 
Tertullian, his cotemporary. " We never take from 
the hand of others," says he, "than presidents, de alio- 
rum manu quam presidentium, the sacrament of the eu- 
charist, commanded by the Lord, in the time of his 
life, to all, even the nightly assemblies.""^ In the same 
chapter, he has used the Latin word, antistes which ex- 
actly corresponds to Trpo^dloii; " Being about to go to 
the water, but a little before it, we testify in the church, 
in the presence of the president , sub antistitis manu, that we 
renounce the devil, and his pomp and angels." That 
the names, 7tpo£ff7cof, Tt^otoTa.ufvo?, prceses and antistes^ 
which had been used for the first presbyter from the 
apostolic age, began to give place to the word sTtcGxoTtos, 
episccpiis, or bishop, is established by his exclusive as- 
signation of the exercise of the power last mentioned, 
to the bishop of every congregation in the following 
passage." "The highest presbyter, who is the bishop, 
summits sacerdos, qui est episcopus, has the right of grant- 
ing baptism, afterwards the presbyters and deacons, 
dehinc preshyteri et diaconi, nevertheless, not without the 
authority of the bishop, for the honor of the church, 
which being preserved, its peace is secure; otherwise 
the right is also with the laymen." The highest im- 
plies inferiors of the same kind. These were the pres- 
byters, because no others had existed at this period, in 
any Christian church. That this diversity sprang, not 
from any original difference in order or office, is evi- 
dent; because Tertullian expressly founds the superior 

* " Praesident probati quique seniores, honorem istum non pre* 
tio sed testimonio adepti." — ifiol. c. 39. 
P De Corona, chap. 3, p. 341. 
n Opera Tertulliani a Semler, vol. iv. p. 203. 
e3 



43 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

authority of bishops, upon its necessity to the preserva- 
tion of the honour and peace of the church, and not 
upon any scriptural or apostoHcal ordination or ap- 
pointment. Here are no lay-presbyters; yet the expe- 
diency alleged for degrading presbyters by a transfer 
of a part of their original authority to a presiding 
presbyter, bears some affinity to that, which is now- 
made the excuse for conferring on elders the place and 
station of deacons in the church. The terms, ^'next 
the presbyters and c/eacwz^," imply that baptism was not 
originally proper, only to the presiding elder; but the 
peace of the church appears to have been disturbed by 
the rivalship of presbyters, whose power of baptizing 
had been made an engine of raising adherents, and 
promoting divisions. The peace of the church re- 
quired that it should be under the direction of the pres- 
bytery in every congregation, and be performed by the 
presiding presbyter, or by some other for him. If the 
original power of these presbyters, which expediency 
only suspended, authorized their administration of or- 
dinances, they were not lay elders. The implied con- 
cession of a power in deacons to do the same things, 
and the position, that the right existed in laymen, show, 
not merely that, had there been lay-presbyters, they 
might have baptized, but that the presbyters spoken of, 
were not laymen. 

He expresses his opinion, "That the authority of 
the church appointed, co?istituit, the difference between 
the order and the people, inter ordi?iem et plebem.^^^ But 
that authority he must have understood to have been 
exercised in the days of the apostles; for he chal- 
lenges the heretics to prove their doctrine by uninter- 
rupted tradition, through successive bishops from the 
apostles ; by which bishops, and the other presbyters, 
he must have meant the order of which he has spoken 
in the singular. "Let them show the commencements 
of their churches — let them tell the series of their bish- 
ops, so descending by succession from the beginning, 

Opera TertuUiani a Semler, voL iii. p. 119- 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 43 

that the first bishop shall have had some author or pre- 
decessor from the apostles, or apostolic men, who con- 
tinued constantly with the apostles; for in this manner 
the apostolic churches deduced their own genealogies; 
thus the church of Smyrna, having Polycarp, relate 
that he was located there by John; thus the church of 
Rome, having Clement, put forth that he was ordained 
by Peter; in the same manner, also, other churches 
present those whom, placed in the episcopacy by the 
apostles, they account the propagators of the apostolic 
cion."P The originality of doctrines was to be proved 
by that of the churches; and this could be shown by 
the successions of the presiding officers. 

The preservation of the names and successions of 
all the presbyters for a century, might have been im- 
practicable ; yet the strength of the argument for the 
sameness of doctrines, chiefly depended upon this cir- 
cumstance, that the presbytery of each church, at any 
given period, secured the orthodoxy of each succes- 
sive 7t:po£cf7co5, presiding, presbyter, whom TertuUian de- 
nominates bishop. 

Inveighing against the irregularities of the heretics, 
he observes, "One is the bishop to day, to-morrow, an- 
other, alius hodie episcopus, eras alius; to day he is a dea- 
con, who is a reader to-morrow, hodie diaeonus, qui 
eras lector; to-day a presbyter, who is a layman to- 
morrow, hodie presbyter, qui eras laicus; for they also 
impose sacerdotal functions on the laity." Individual 
assemblies are here the allusion, as in all other parts of 
his writings; if one to-day acted as the bishop in pub- 
lic worship, and to-morrow another, it must have been 
intended of one man's leading in the ordinances on one 
day, and another on the next, which is no more than the 
office of the Ttpoiolui, president; except that with heretics, 
the duty belonged to no one permanently. This pas- 
sage also proves, that reading was no part of the dea- 
con's office; that elders were not laymen; and th^t 

P lb. vol. ii. p. 39. 



44 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

the latter ought not to have performed clerical duties in 
the church. 

When arguing the truth of the common doctrines 
against Marcion, from their priority, after mentioning 
the churches of Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalon- 
ica, Ephesus and Rome, he observes, "we have also the 
churches nourished, alumnas, of John ; for if Marcion 
rejects also his Apocalypse, nevertheless, the series of 
the bishops, ordo iamen episcoporum, reckoned up to 
their commencement, will stand upon John their foun- 
der. In the same manner also, the genuieness of the 
other churches is recognized." The enumerations of 
the presiding presbyters, which have formerly occur- 
red, render this passage perfectly clear, and vastly 
different from the modern import of the phrase order 
of bishops. He sometimes also means by ordo, the bench 
of presbyters which sat in every organized church. 
"Ubi ecclesiastici ordinis non est consessus, where there is 
not a presbytery, offers et tingis, you administer the eu- 
charist, and baptize, &c."i This is the plain testimony 
of Tertullian,'' that there was but one kind of ecclesi- 
astics in every church, who were called an order, be- 
cause they sat in a row; of these there w^as one, who 
by custom, from the apostle's days, presided; and the 
series of such presidents, up to the apostles, was also 
denominated the order of the bishops of that particular 
congregation; but we have not found a w^ord con- 
cerning lay-presbyters, in all his writings. 

q lb. vol. iii. p. 119. 

r The piece on the Trinity appearing among" the works ascribed 
to TertuUian, has been referred by Jerom to Novatian, who lived 
until about the middle of the third century. In like manner the 
treatise on Jewish meats, among- the works of TertuUian, is ascribed 
to Novatian; and also the 30th letter in the works of Cyprian. 
Neither Novatian nor Hilary, the deacon, are accounted authors, 
their writing's having" been incorrectly assig-ned to others. 



SECTION VI. 

Ignatius wrote epistles; the Latin are given up, and the larger Greek gene- 
rally: ike smaller are liable to many objections. — They sustain not the chu' 
racier given by Polycarp, were opposed to Arianism, which was long after 
his day; differ in style; were written when the government was parochial 
episcopacy. — The word iTrta-noTroc had not been substituted for TTfOiVTUS 
in the days of the martyr, as these letters represent. — The writer's principal 
object was to enhance the power of parochial bishops, which had not commenc- 
ed then. — They allege lie saw Christ, which would make him too old in 
116 to have walked and acted as described. — There is mention of an error ^ 
which arose long after his martyrdom. — Tlieir description of the church as 
Catholic, the worship as at an altar, and in a temple, and the bread as if 
transubstantiated, are argv,ments against them. — Other objections. 

That Ignatius was sentenced by Trajan, whilst at 
Antioch on his way to the East, in his fourth year, 
A. D. 116, to be carried to Rome, and there given to 
wild beasts, which was accordingly done, is sufficient- 
ly certain. The account of his martyrdom, which 
has been defended as ancient and aQthentic, disagrees 
with the relation Eusebius has given of his progress 
to Rome. The former declares that he sailed from 
Seleucia to Smyrna, thence to Troas, and from thence 
to Neapolis. The latter relates that he passed through 
Asia, and confirmed the congregations throughout 
every city where he came, preaching the word of 
God, &c. Whoever compares the seven larger Greek 
epistles which bear the name of Ignatius, with the ac- 
count which Eusebius has given of the epistles of that 
apostolic father, will find such an agreement as will 
estabhsh a strong probabihty that they are the same. 
Yet this argument is nearly the same in favor of 
the smaller which are chiefly preferred. The Latin 
epistles, and the larger Greek ones, are now generally, 
if not universally given up. The larger epistles are 



46 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

evidently tinctured with Arian opinions, which Euse- 
bius held. His approbation of the epistles which he 
had, is some evidence that they were the larger ones. 
The question is, whether those letters, w^hich Eusebius 
saw, were genuine epistles of that martyr. If the 
larger be claimed, their Arianism militates against 
their genuineness ; if the smaller, their opposition to 
that doctrine must equally prove them supposititious. 
The writings of twelve Christian fathers, all born after 
the death of Ignatius, and dead before the birth of 
Eusebius, have reached our times. Clemens Roma- 
nus died before Ignatius; Polycarp survived him long. 
His letter to the Philippians appears perfectly in cha- 
racter for that excellent man, and entirely consistent 
with the circumstances of his day, and the condition 
of the churches. That letter does mention letters of 
Ignatius, but except the message to the people of An- 
tioch, the description of their contents by Polycarp, 
as those " from which the Philippians w^ould be able to 
derive great advantage, as containing faith and pa- 
tience, and all that edification w^hich brings us to our 
Lord,"* is greatly different from the tenor of those 
w^hich are now offered to the world. 

That which purports to have been written toPoly- 
carp differs in style, but accords with the strain of the' 
other six, the obvious design and the main scope of 
which, were to enhance clerical authority and popu- 
lar subjugation; evils of a date long after the days of 
Ignatius. Speaking to the people through Polycat'p, 
he is made to say, " Attend unto the bishop, that God 
may also to you ; my soul for theirs, who shall be sub- 
ject to the bishop, presbyters, and deacons."^ We 
should have expected from the venerable martyr, on 

a E^ mv txiycLKa. a<^iXnBiivctt J'vvMa-ia-^i. Uipn^ouo-l yup Trtaltv KXt 

V7rO/UlOVHVy KUt TTttCrSiV OlKoSo/UHV T«y it; rOV ZVptOV >1/Ua)V CtVHKOUTAf, 

^ §6. Ton iTrKTKOTro) ^/)0i7«;^«7s) ivajcai o Btoc vfMv, Avli-^v^ov tyeo 
Tajv vTrdltta-a-o/uivatv rui tTria-iccTrai ■^pi(r0ulepia) J'tunuvoK. In the larg'er 
epistle it is Trpta-Svlfpict kcli Siukovok. The Latin translator has 
rendered Avlt-^viov unanimis^ but that is the force of the word 
tfAo-^v^oi- The English translation has, <* My soul be for theirs," 
&c. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 47 

his way to the amphitheatre, where he was to be 
eaten by wild beasts, that he should have breathed 
far other language. Eusebius has mentioned a quo- 
tation by Irenseus of a sentiment, which is found 
in the letter supposed to have been written by Igna- 
tius to the Romans.*^ Irenasus mentions not the name 
of Ignatius, but says : " As one of ours, adjudged to 
wild beasts for his testimony unto God, said." Ire- 
naeus's book was written more than a hundred years, 
and the expression of Ignatius, as spoken or written, 
two hundred before the time when Eusebius wrote. 
This was probably the evidence by which this credu- 
lous historian received those letters. If he had had 
other proofs, he would probably have given them. 
But there existed prior to his day, in the writings of 
Origen also a proof, which extends further than the 
passage in Iren^Eus, inasmuch as it both mentions the 
name of Ignatius, and gives a sentiment which is 
found in that epistle, which is directed to the Ephe- 
sians."^ Thus Irenaeus and Origen in these scanty 
references to the venerable martyr Ignatius, furnished, 
as far as we know, all the foundation upon which 
those seven epistles, which may have existed in the 
days of Eusebius, could have then claimed to be those 
mentioned by Polycarp.^ If false men have produced 

c § 4, 2;72? iifJ(.i Tov 3-iou KAi Si cSovlav ^npictv AXtl^tlJUCtt tvx 
KABupoi aploc (B-ecv, in the larger epistle) ivpi^oo {tov ^pialou is not 
in Irenaeus. I am God's grain, and am (now to be) ground by the 
teeth of wild beasts, that I may be proved to be the pure bread {of 
Christ.) 

d Ktf/> iKctBi^i rOV etp^OVTU. TOV etlatVCQ TOVTOU » TApBiVlU. Mttpiitc, 

&c. (6th horn, on Luke, Compar. with Ep. ad Ephes. § 19.) 
And the virg-inity of Mary was hidden from the ruler of this world. 
Also Orig-en quoted the words, 'O ijuos ipces ^ta-nntupaTAt, Ad. 
Rom. § 7. 

e Feeble as this evidence is, which establishes no more than that, 
if aforg-ery, it was committed prior to the time in which Eusebius 
wrote his Ecclesiastical History. It might pass unsuspected, if the 
strain of the letters suited the character of the martyr, and the con- 
dition of the ciiurches in his day. They do evince that they were 
written before the diocesan episcopacy was introduced; and in this 
they establish a claim of antiquity, but other circumstances place 
them after the period they arrogate to themselves. 



48 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMEJS^T 

other letters of Ignatius, written to Tarsus, Antioch, 
Hiero, Mary, and two to John; and enlarged the 
seven, now under consideration ; or, as some think, 
abridged the large ones, to become what are now 
contended for, and corrected with excessive liberality, 
the presumption arising from the integrity of our 
race, that these are the original letters of Ignatius, is 
exceedingly imbecile. The word bishop (sTtt^xoTtos) 
was not used to distinguish the president (jiposatai) or 
messenger (oyyf^^os) in the respective churches from the 
other presbyters (Tipsa^vtepot) who were equally bishops 
(crtttfxortot,) till long after the death of Ignatius. Yet 
these letters impute to this pious martyr an ardent 
zeal for the authority of the bishop {sTtiaxorto^) and al- 
ways subordinate the presbyters to him. This also 
appears to have been more at heart with the writer 
than any other subject. Nor can a reader fail to dis- 
cern the striking contrast between them and the letter 
of Polycarp before cited ; not only in the particular 
last mentioned, but in the general scope and tendency, 
and in the breathing of humility and piety, conspicu- 
ous throughout the latter. There are other particular 
grounds of objection appearing in these letters, which 
ought not to pass unobserved. In the epistle to the 
Christians at Smyrna, he says, "For I also after his," 
Christ's " resurrection," " saw him in the flesh, and 
believe he exists."^ This is at variance with the 
opinion, that Ignatius was blessed by the Saviour when 
an infant.^ For if then an infant, he could not hav^e 
witnessed the resurrection of Christ. We may admit 
he was given to wild beasts, A. D. 116, for the reasons 

f § 3. 'Eya, yat-p kai fxirA mv ctVA^rntrtv, tv eruftict avrov nSovy Ktit 
TTio-Tivo) ovT*. If', instead of s/cfov, be read oiS'sty it may then be, 
<*/ know that after the resurrection he was in thejiesh, and believe 
that he is .10." But why should he have written to those who had 
the same testimony from the apostles, of the divinity of Christ, 
which he professed; and why say that he knew it, when it was a 
matter of belief? But if he had seen him, it was proper to assert 
the fact. 

g lyvetrtov ov trt vn?nov, cvta a? eiTrxouv xttt ajupoLiov ivSuKVVfxtyeCi 
iifxrt tTTia-H? iKiivciyyovoiTo, Sec, Nicephorus, vol. i. p. 192. 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 49 

assigned by Pearson, Smith, and others ; and if he 
was twenty years of age at the resurrection of Christ, 
which is supposing him to have been as young as can 
well be admitted for such a testimony, then he was 
not such an infant, but must have been one hundred 
-and two years old when he walked from Antioch to 
Seleucia, and sailed to Smyrna, where he wrote four 
of those letters, and from thence to Troas, where he 
wrote this letter, that to Poly carp, and another to the 
Philadelphians, and from thence sailed to Neapolis, 
from whence he went on foot across Macedonia unto 
the Adriatic. These labors appear inconsistent with 
the truth of the fact of his having seen Christ after 
his resurrection. And if Eusebius and Chrysostom 
are correct in saying that he travelled as a convict 
through Asia, preaching and comforting the churches, 
the difficulty is greatly enhanced. Chrysostom wrote 
since Eusebius, has given us a long eulogy on the 
piety and death of Ignatius, through twelve folio half 
pages, and detailed his labors ; yet never once has he 
mentioned any of his letters. But Dupin thinks there 
isj in one place, half a line which has been taken from 
the letter to the Romans. If he accredited those let- 
ters, why did he pass them in silence ? Many of the 
terms used in them appear to be of later adoption than 
the days of the venerable martyr. The church is de- 
nominated catholic, {xaOouxTi) the place of worship is 
rao?, a temple, where there is sv ^(jtacfT-j^pcov, one altar^ 

and it is affirmed 'triv evxapi't^'ttav sapxa iivac T'ou cfcoT'i^poj 
rj/xcoi' IrjGov. XptcTt'ot; Tfrjv oHsp afiapTf lav »;/.icov TtaOovcCtjVf that 

the eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which 
suffered for our sms ; and also to be the bread of God, 
aproj tov Oeov. But the favorite and predominant ex- 
pression appears to be, vTtotasascseao ^9 £Hi.6xort(^, to he 
in subjection unto the bisfiop, to which is also added, 
05 xapiTfo 9sov, as to the grace of God. 

There appears in the letter to the Trallians an ex- 
ample of proud boasting, badly accordant both with 
the character and circumstances of the aged martyr 

F 



50 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

on his way to execution.*^ " Am not I able to write 
to you heavenly things? But I fear that I should do 
you an injury, being infants ; and, pardon me, lest, not 
being able to swallow, you should be strangled. For 
I also, not as though I am bound, am able even to 
write (ypa^ac) heavenly things, and the local dispositions 
of the angels, and the companies under the princes, 
and things visible and things invisible." Christ's ap- 
pearance to Paul after his resurrection, and Paul's 
rapture and sight of what it was not allowed him to 
describe, seem to be the things here imitated, but the 
knowledge which Ignatius boasted, exceeds any 
claimed by the apostle. 

It has been often objected to these letters, that there 
is a denial in that to the Magnesians, that Jesus 
Christ proceeded from Sige ; which had been affirmed 
by Valentinus some time after the martyrdom of Igna- 
tius. The words of the letters are, " Seeing there is 
one God, who manifested himself by Jesus Christ his 
son, who is his eternal Word, not proceeding from 
Sige, who in all things pleased him who sent him." ^ 
Irenasus and Tertullian, who wrote against the follow- 
ers of Valentinus, both show that he held Sige to be 
one of his first duad, from whom mediately Christ 
came. Also, that Valentinus began his fanciful modi- 
fications of the heresy of the Gnostics almost half a 
century after the death of Ignatius, is indubitable.'^ It 
has been answered that Sige {silence) was meant ap- 

^ § 5. Ma ov cfyva/ttst; Tot iTrovpcivict ypct-^at; aAx2, (poBovjum /u» 
VHTTloig oucriv v/uiv &Kct^i)V TTeipciQSi. Kail Tvyy\oi:fxo\\i<rz ^o/, ^a;T5Tg 
cv JuvnQiVTii ^aipno-xi (7Tpa.yyxKovB)iTi {a-rpityya.had-it're in the larger 
letter.) K*/ yctp syce ov KOLdori SiSijwii, ksli Svva./uiVos ret i?rcupAViaiy 
TUfti Tctc TOTToBio-iits Tstr uyy£Xii{.!tc kui rctc o-va-raasiT ta? Ap^oVTiKAS 
opATit^-eKcti AopdiTct. VVhiston joins ov with ^wctfAivod am notable; 
but then these words contradict those which precede them, and 
also the larger epistle, wdiich here adds his knowledge " of the 
magnificence of the JEons, and of the incomparable majesty of 
Almighty God." 

i § 8. — Ot< hi; •&'so? ic-Tiv <})AV«/)a'ff"st? sstyrov Sidi lua-ou Xpta-Tov tov 
vlov Aurob, 0? io-Tiv AVTov Koyog AiStag ovk atto criynz TrpoixSceVy oe xatTo. 

TtdLVTA iVHpiO-TH<7iV T* TTi/U'^AVTl AVTOV. 

k Vide Irenseus, lib. iii. c. iv. Euseb. Hist, lib. iv. c. 2. Nice- 
phorus, lib. iv. c. 3. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 51 

pellatively. But this is not satisfactory. It has been 
also asserted that the Gnostics had the same error 
before Valentinus. But the correctness of this we 
have never found. There is a passage in Eusebius 
which has been brought to show that he referred 
Sige to Simon Magus, but the better opinion is, that 
he speaks of Marcellus's Sige, as derived from Valen- 
tinus, and agrees with Epiphanius, who affirms that 
Marcellus took his ^ons from that arch-heretic of 
the second century, which is also credible, because 
Simon Magus was dead long before his day. This 
objection might appear enough, but it is amply sup- 
ported by its coincidence with many others. 

The larger copy is generally and deservedly aban- 
doned as tumid with interpolations, and savoring of 
Arianism. Yet there are expressions in the smaller, 
how justifiable soever in point of doctrine, which 
w^ould not have been so frequently reiterated, and 
wdth so much point, by any writer before the days of 
Arius. Thus Ad Smyrnm. s. 1. Ao|a^« ivjaow j^pts'z'oj/, 

T'oi/ OsoVf &C. S. 10. u>$ 8'iaxavovi zP''S'^ov dsov. Ad Ephes. 
Praet Ev dsV^T^fxatt, tov Ttatpo^f xai Ii^^ov ;^pttfT'0V) -tov 0foi; 
tjfjLcov. S. 1. £v aiuatc 6sov» S. 7. sv aapxo yevofisvos 0foj. 
S- 18. Oyap 0foj »2^coi/ Ir](36vi o xp^i'^o^') &c. Ad. Trail. S. 7. 
dsov Ii^66v xp^^'iov. Ad Rom. Praef. Ir^cov xpf'^'^ov, 'tov daov 
f^fioiv. ibid, sv Irj(Sov xpiatco, ta OsZi Tj/jiujv. S. S. O yap 6sog 

Tjfiiiv ijycfors ;tpt?^oj, &c. Because Whiston has utterly 
failed in his efforts to sustain the larger epistles and 
the pseudo-apostolic constitutions which President 
Dwight jusdy pronounces '^ a miserable forgery — in 
the latter end of the fourth, or the beginning of the 
fifth century," it by no means follows that the above 
and other passages, which he has noted in the smaller 
epistles, are not strong proofs that those letters were 
written long after the days of Ignatius. 

That Ignatius wrote letters is true, if the passage to 
that effect in Polycarp's letter be not an interpolation. 
But the genuineness of these letters appears to be 
without any sufficient support prior to the fourth cen- 
tury. That either the smaller or larger ones existed 



52 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

when Eusebius wrote, is credible, but to what inter- 
polations and alterations they may have been since 
subjected, is not known. If w^e place them in the third 
century, near its commencement, their existence is 
then admitted to have been an hundred years prior to 
the evidence furnished by Eusebius, and their language 
and subject matter will be freed from the many other- 
wise insurmountable objections which have been so 
often brought against them. 

Those to the churches at Ephesus, Magnesia. 
Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, and Smyrna, and another 
to Polycai^, seven only, out of fifteen, are now thought 
to claim any attention. 

That parochial episcopacy which they inculcate, 
even to indiscretion, determines them, at the earhest, 
to the third century, when the TtpoaoVcoj, or presiding 
elder, had monopolized the name bishop ; and the tacit 
concession of their scriptural title had produced a 
partial surrender of the episcopal authority of presby- 
ters, under the plausible pretext of securing the honor 
and peace of the church. But these epistles discover 
only a diversity in degree, not order ; some change 
in government, none in ordination. They were indi- 
vidual churches, in each of which there were a bishop, 
of less power than a modern pastor, a presbytery, and 
deacons. 

The letter to the Ephesians represents them con- 
vening, £7to to cwTfo, unto the same place, at the same time, 
or for the same purpose as a single church. Their 
bishop, Onesimus, was, in the impious language 
of the letter, to be i-espected as the Lord himself, 
" cof avtov tov Yjve^vov Sst 7tpo(5/3?»,£rt£ti'. '' TYiQix presbytery 
was wwthy of Gcd I vy.(^v rt^sGjSvts^iov tov Otov a|tov j and 
if that duty be chiefly important which is most en- 
joined in these letters, the reverence of God must give 
place to clerical aggrandizement. 

The uniform representation of a bishop, presbyters, 
and deacons, in a single church, accords with the 
state of things in this century. The observation, that 
it is good to teach, if the teacher practices accordingly^ 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 53 

directed to the Ephesian Christians, in the absence of 
their bishop, implies that the presbyters were teachers; 
and is corroborated by the commendation of the silence 
of their bishop, " atycavla ertvaxoTtov,^^ otherwise culpable. 
An inculcation of obedience to the bishop and presbytery, 

£15 to vjiaxovBW vfia^ t<^ £rtttfxort9 scat t'9 rt^f(5i3DT'j^fc9» 

howev^er singular it would have appeared in the age 
of the martyr, discovers in such a writer the necessity 
of yielding to the public notoriety of the sameness of 
the order, even at the period of the forgery. 

The church of Magnesia, in Asia, is also represented 
as a single congregation, worshipping in one place, 
and by one supplication- In language approaching 
profaneness, this letter describes Damas, who was in 
danger of being despised on account either of youth 
or stature, as the bishop presiding in the place of God, 
HfioxaSi^fjLEvov tov £7ii6xo7tov it^ 'foTiov&sov; the presbyters, in 
place of a session of apostles, t<ov 7tp£(s^vle^cov si? toTtov 
(juj'fSptoD Tcov arcoaloTicov ; and the deacons, as entrusted with 
the service of Jesus Christ, 'tcav bvaxovcav ftsjtia'Jsvfjiivtiiv 
Siaxoviav Irj6ov 'Kptcslov. The WOrd rtpoxaOyifisvov is, lite- 
rally, occupying the first seat, which, being of the same 
kind with that of the presb}^ers who sat with him, 
implies that their order was the same, i^iaxoviav, 
though rendered nmiistry, is no stronger than ^laxovo?. 
If these presbyters were successors of the apostles, 
and the pastor denominated the bishop, and compared 
to God himself, was of the same order, they were not 
laymen. At Tralles, the church were advised, in the 
language of modern idolatry, to respect the deacons, 
Siaxovovs, and the bishop even as Jesus Christ, who is the 
So?i of the Father, coj Itjgovv Xpoalov to? xat, Tfov sfnaxoTtov, 
ovta %iov tov na7poj, and the presbyters as a council of 
God, and a college of apostles, tov^ Is TtpsojSuT'fpovj wj swt- 
Sptov ©fw, xa.1 KjvvSsaftov arioaloXoiv. He that, without the 
bishop, presbytery, and deacons, does any thing, jtpaacav •r't, 
is not pure in his conscience. It becomes you, every indi- 
vidual, and especially the presbyters, to cherish, ava4u;^ftj/, 
the bishop, to the honor of the Father of Jesus Christ, and 
of the apostles. After the valediction, subjection to the 
f2 



54 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

bishop, as by command^ «j r?i ivtoxri^ is enjoined, a?idi?i 
like manner also to the presbytery. This, in like manner, 
o^oicof xat -tc^ rt^fcjSxJT-apfc^, discovers that the presbytery 
were not included in the irtolaffooixEvot, or subjection to 
the bishop, as were the people to the bishop and pres- 
bytery : another proof that the presbyters were not 
laymen. 

The letter to the church at Rome, dated at Smyrna, 
is a violation of the sixth precept of the law, repre- 
senting it to be easy for them to do what they pleased, 
*vfjiiv yap £v%£p£? £(slw 'o Oh^ili 7iocri6av, but injurious to him, 
if they should spare him. He was sure of death, if 
they would consent. This letter bears little resem- 
blance, except in weakness, to the rest, and was pro- 
bably the work of some third Ignatius. 

The letter to the church at Philadelphia, in Asia 
Proper, from Troas, may be imputed to the writer 
of the three first. It represents Ignatius to have 
spoken in the church at Philadelphia, with a great 

voice, T'9 £7ii6x07icf) Ttpodsx^'^^i xao -I'cp Ttp^Gj^vtspic) xai Staxoj/otj, 

adhere to the bishop, the presbytery, and the deacons. It was 
thought that he had foreseen a division of the people, 
but he calls God to witness, that the Spirit spake, To 5s 
ytvsvixa sxy^pvGOEv, saying these things: ^'Do nothing uith- 

out your bishop, (^-C." T-sycov tabs 5 ;t"pt? "^w iTtiCxOTtov firjbBv 

Ttoisite, &oC. The position is unsound, the inspiration 
at best a delusion, and the oath a falsehood, of all 
which the pious Ignatius was probably clear. But 
we are concerned at present only with the fact, that 
there were, at the period of this forgery, no lay 
elders. 

The letter to the church at Smyrna, from Troas, 
resembles the last and the three first. This church 

was also a single assembly, orcov av ^avr; 'o erCtSxCTiog, BXii 

■fo rfKridoq £(j7w, wheresoever the bishop may appear, there let 
the multitude be. The same extravagant comparisons 
are here reiterated : Let all folhiv the bishop, as Jesus 
Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as apostles : 
and let them reverence the deacons, as the commandment of 
God, Let that eucharist be accounted valid, 7L'hich is by 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 55 

the bishop, or by him whom he shall appoint, sxeivTi jSfjSaca 

£v;t<*^'Cf7"* lyytt^J^") V '^^o *o'' irttaxoTiov ovtsa, vj 9 ar av7oj 

ertcfpc^-j^. Whilst this delegation of authority shows 
the late period of the letter, it equally evinces that the 
presbyters of the third century were not laymen. 
" It is not lawful, ovx t^ov salt, without the bishop, to bap- 
tize, or ayajt'yjv rioiEvv, celebrate the feast.''^ If the duties 
which are here supposed to be legalized by the bishop, 
be baptism and the eucharist, presbyters, not laymen, 
must have been prohibited. The prohibition supposes 
an antecedent contrary practice ; and the power of 
the bishop, hereby gained, resulted from a restraint 
imposed upon presbyters, under the pretext of secur- 
ing peace. They were not, however, reduced to lay- 
men, nor have they been at any subsequent period. 

The letter directed to Polycarp, from Troas, re- 
sembles the rest, except that to the Romans ; yet has 
been doubted by some who have received the other 
six. If Polycarp could have had a personal acquain- 
tance wdth every man in his charge, tot^ xo.-to. av6pa— 
•KoXiL, he was scarcely a diocesan. After enjoining 
him to let nothing be done without his consent, " MtjBsv 
avsv yvufiT^i gov yivsaOa, turning to the people, the cun- 
ning writer says, attend to the bishop that God also may 

to you, fa Z7iv6xo7tu ftpocSsx^'^Si f'l'Ot xao 6 Oso^ %(xiv. I zoill be 

the surety, soul for soul, of them that submit to the bishop, 
presbyters, and deacons, avl(,-\v%ov syco tcov vTtotaacsofjLsvciv -r'cji 
sTtiaxoTta, ftpsaiSvtipois, Biaxovoig, This is not too much 
to be expected of the 7'eal author. All the relevant 
passages have not been quoted, but nothing has been 
discovered in these letters, either of diocesan superi- 
ority, or of lay eldership. Nevertheless, an indiscreet 
zeal to enhance the power of bishops, and to depre- 
ciate the authority of presbyters, appears in all, ex- 
cept that to the Romans. 

At the period of these letters, it is plain, that bishops 
in nothing, differed from pastors of churches, or con- 
gregational bishops ; except that there still remained 
in all the churches, presbyters who preached, and 
might, with the bishop's usurped permission, perform 



56 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the other ordinances ; and nothing has appeared in 
these letters, or any other writings hitherto examined, 
to shov^. or even found a suspicion, that there ever 
had been more than one ordinary preaching office. 
Also, not a solitary fact or circumstance has occurred 
in these letters, or prior to the third century, which 
furnishes even the idea of a lay presbyter. Those 
who are accustomed to argue conclusively from them, 
that no diversity existed in the ordination of preach- 
ers, ought also to discern, that this circumstance is 
equally decisive against the existence of lay presby- 
ters at that period, and corroborates the allegation of 
a total defect of such an ordination, either by precept 
or example in the Sacred Scriptures. 



AN ANSWER TO " PHILO-IGNATIUS." ^ 

Tms signature is an assumption of that, which the 
writer aims to establish ; and unjust in the eyes of 
those who deem the letters vindicated a blot upon the 
memory of the pious martyr. That they are ancient 
is unquestionable : if P. I. can show them to be gen- 
uine, or disclose ancient proofs of the martyrology, he 
will do a public service. The burden of proving lies 
upon the affirmative ; facts only, not opinions, are ad- 
missible. Proofs later than the third century, in 
which their subject matter appears to place th<^m, are 
of no avail, except as to their Arian and Athanasian 
interpolations. 

ThatEusebius represents Ignatius rs passing ih?'oiigh 
Asia on his way to martyrdom at Rome, was alleged 
by W. To this P. I. has politely answered : " Euse- 
bius in truth asserts no such thing." The first issue is, 

I Gospel Advocate, Vol, iii. No. 2. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 57 

therefore, upon the words — *' tTjv 6t' A(jtaj avaxofiiBt^v 

Xotovfxevoi. "^ 

P. I. has observed, " Avaxoi.u87i means, according to 
Suidas, the same as avayo8vi<, f 7taro§oj ai^a^o^a. The word 
is used in speaking of the transportation of a dead 
body from one sepulchre to another, from a field of 
battle to interment. See 2. Mace. xii. 39. E^sxofit^slo, 
a word of the same origin is used in Luke, vii. 12, of 
the son of the widow of Nain, who was carried out for 
burial. The idea, then, conveyed by th'iS expressive 
word, is that of carrying away without any will of the 
person carried.^^ 

If the three synonymes brought from Suidas be cor- 
rect, to which Hesychius adds avoycoyjy, then aj'apco^tg?^ 
must signify the very reverse of carrying away, u 
return. But, ''s^axo^i^sto, a word of the same origin, is 
— carried outy And rightly, for £x and ava, in compo- 
sition, have opposite meanings. Another proof is 
brought from 2 Mace. xii. 39, where avaxofiiaaaOai is 
used for " the transportation of dead bodies." It is a 
mistake ; it is there used for the bringing the dead 
bodies to be buried ; otherwise sxxoixL6a66ai would have 
been adopted, as in Luke. Ko^ut^cj is to bear, sx is 
away, exxo/xL^a is to bear away, and exxo^ibri, like ^x^oe^a., 
is tra?isportaiion, or a carrying away. On the contrary, 
am is re in composition ; avaxofii^u> is to bri?ig back, or 
return; and avaxofA,L8yj a return, as Suidas has shown. 
By what authority P. I. could affirm, that avaxofxiBfj 
signifies a ^^ carrying away without any will of the person 
carried, remains for him to discover. He knew, that 
xof^vhri means care, or a carryi?ig ; that sx signifies away, 
and am the opposite. How he could represent avaxo- 
/t*t5j7 the same as sxxofuBr], a carryi?ig away, his claim of 
" learning and experience" requires him to develope. In 
xofisc^, euro, the will of the agent is implied. But if he 
could elicit from avaxoiA,(,8ri the idea of '' without any wilt 

in Euseb. lib. iii. c. 36. Vide Necephor. lib. iii. c. xix. — ic^t 
'^oivvv Sicr/utog Si Ka-tsti ta>v fA.iT a.o-<poiKov; Toy; ^foyf*f— *' et AsiaiU 
cum firma militum custodia peragrans." 



58 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

of the person carried^'' he would depart from the syno- 
nymes he has brought from Suidas — oppose the letters 
he wishes to establish, which assert the martyr's wil- 
lingness ; and contradict ^totw^sj^oj, which expresses 
the reverse. 

W. imagines that sxxofivSTj and avaxofjudf] were words 
commonly used, for going from and returning to the 
capital, especiaJiy on those pubHc roads, which were 
made from Rome into the provinces. But he was 
" misled by trusting to the Latin translatioii of Valesius, 
which is, cum per Asiam ductaretiir. This, in his zeal to 
find out an inconsistency, he thought could mean no- 
thing else than an overland journey. If he had looked 
at tiie ancient translation by Rufinus, he would have 
found this very passage thus rendered, cum per Asiam 
sub ctistodia 7iavigaret.''^ 

P. I. concluding, what indeed is too true, that W. is 
a " novice," sports with him ; as if Ttoiovixivo^ was navi- 
garet, and an object, -iriv avaxo/jLoSTjv, equivalent unto sub 
custodia, a circumstance. P. I. has been himself se- 
duced, and as those who fall into bad company have 
a heart ready for it, so he has been too anxious to 
make this passage express sailing. If a thousand 
such critics as Philo-Ignatius and Rufinus should ren- 
der 'fvjv avaxojxvhviv TioLov{A,£voi by ex custodia 7iavigaret, 
there would be no defect of " modesty" in smiling at 
their acumen. 

It is further observed by the author in the " Gospel 
Advocate ;" "An examination of a map would show 
at once, why Eusebius used the expression St'Acrtaj. 
Instead of going straight from Antioch through the 
Mediterranean to Italy, which would have been the 
most direct and ordinary course, the martyr was con- 
veyed Sc'Atftaj, hy the way of Asia Minor.^^ " The Mar- 
tyrology specifies that Ignatius w^ent by water from 
Selucia to Neapolis, touching only at the several 
places mentioned in Asia Minor." " Learned''^ men 
sometimes presume too much upon the " ignorance'^ of 
others. A great circle passing through Antioch to 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 59 

the capital of the empire, varies little from the ancient 
Roman way, through what is now called Asia Minor, 
to Pergamus ; and from the road from Neapolis by 
Thessalonica to the Adriatic, opposite Brundusium ; 
and from the Appian way, which passed directly to 
the Amphitheatre. Any course by sea from Antioch 
to Rome will deviate from the line mentioned, by a 
perpendicular distance, not less than three or four 
times longer than any one from any part of the route 
through Asia, by Neapolis, Thessalonica, and Brun- 
dusium. If it were worth the effort to controvert the 
assertion, that sailing was then the " ordinary" mode, 
it can be evinced equally incorrect. 

That the pious Ignatius was sent by Trajan to Rome 
in some manner, and died a martyr there, we will not 
dispute. That these forgeries existed when Eusebius 
wrote, is credible, but to what interpolations they were 
afterwards subjected, is not known. A suggestion of 
a possibility that the larger were those which Eusebius 
had seen, induced P. I. to exhibit comparisons of the 
three quotations in that versatile historian. The first 
he has judged unimportant. The second is five to one 
against him, upon his own showing. With regard to 
the third, it is enough to say : If Eusebius had the 
larger ones before him, he omitted only what was in 
the Scriptures, and sufficiently known. Also, it is not 
to be supposed, that if the smaller were last made, the 
abridger would have ventured to deviate from the 
then most public historian in the Christian world. 
The same reason also operates with equal force to 
show, that the larger were prior to Eusebius ; at least 
in that passage, for a wary interpolator must have 
feared the variance. 

Whether the Arian or Athanasian set, or the origi- 
nal forgeries, w^ere seen by Constantino's historian, it 
is impossible to tell. P. I. thinks their genuineness 
" long ago settled by the judgment of the learned 
world." On the contrary, Dr. Priestly alleges, " that 
the genuineness of them is not only very much doubt- 



60 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

ed, but generally given up by the learned." Both 
have erred ; for the history of the dispute v^ill show, 
it is still sub judice. But an appeal to opinions is 
vrorse than vain ; facts must decide. 

The imbecility of W. should have saved him from 
the charge of enmity agaifist episcopacy. If by that 
name, P. 1. intends a denomination, W. believes it a 
part of the body of Christ, and to continue till He 
comes ; — it has his daily prayers : if a class of profess- 
ing Christia?is, many of these are hisbest and most be- 
loved friends, with whom he mixes before the throne 
of grace : if the diocesan form of government, W. wishes 
every one to follow it who chooses, and promises to 
do so himself^ if P. I. will show even probability for its 
existence in the New Testament, or the two first cen- 
turies. 

The object of the writer of these numbers is to coun- 
teract an episcopacy industriously, but not always in- 
genuously, propagated in his own denomination ; with 
which the letters of the pseudo-Ignatius have a closer 
affinity than with that which is diocesan ; against the 
early existence of which they are a standing monu- 
ment. 

11 Scliroeckh, the most distinguished of the modern ecclesiastical 
historians of Germany, not only asserts that the g-enuineness of the 
larger epistles of Ignatius has received very little support from the 
learned, but plainly intimates an opinion that the smaller, if not a 
forgery, have been interpolated. In his epitome, he says, *'appa- 
ruit tandem, etiam breviores earum, nisi ab alio scriptas, at certe 
mterpolat^s esse in gratiam episcoporum." — Ed, 



SECTION VII. 

Expediency no justification for ordinations not preserved hy divine authority. 
— The work of Minucius Felex shows that Christians had no temples, altars, 
nor images, when he wrote, and that their worship was concealed. — The Sta- 
tue ofHippolytus in the Vatican^ is later than A.D. 600. —His tract against 
Noetus, proves that a presbytery in a church Jiad the power to cite and depose 
n heretic. — Origen calls the angels of the seven churches in the Apocalypse 
vpo6a-la>li(. — The Philocalia were collected long after his death; a passage 
in them has been misunderstood. — His censures of the ambition arid ignor- 
ance of bishops and presbyters, and his interpretations of the Scriptures 
evince, that the church was still in the state of parochial, episcopacy. 

If a mode of government can be elicited from the 
New Testament, the maxim, "whatever is best admin- 
istered is best," is more objectionable in ecclesi- 
astical, than civil politics. Ambition has often per- 
verted both; yet the essentials of the church of Christ 
exist in many denominations unto this day. Never- 
theless, to affirm that expediency can vindicate ordi- 
nations not found in the word, is to assert, that the end 
can justify unlawful means. Pious breathings of heart 
are religion, yet zeal should associate attainable know- 
ledge, correct motives, and other circumstances ; and 
never substitute " for doctrines the commandments of 
men." 

Minucius, Hippolytus, and Origen will now prove, 
that during the intermissions of the sufferings inflicted 
by Severus, Maximinus, and Decius, in the third cen- 
tury the scriptural ordinary officers ruled, and served 
the churches. 

The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Fehx appears to 
have been written, after the apology of Tertullian, 
and to contain passages transcribed by Cyprian. It 
is a vindication of Christianity perfectly in character 
for a Roman orator, as was the wrtter. 

G 



62 THB PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

Cecilius presents the arguments of the day against^ 
and Octavius defends, the "mad superstition;" Marcus 
is intrusted by the former to be umpire, and hy him 
also saved from the trouble of a sentence. This plea- 
sant little fiction offers to our subject nothing relevant, 
except an unbiassed representation, at its period, of 
the humble condition of the Christian church in the 
capital of the v^orld. Cecilius, in his ardor asksj 
"Why have they," the Christians, "neither altars, nor 
temples, nor any images, at least which are known? 
Why do they not speak, but in private holes, and cor- 
ners, whither they repair by stealth, if this their reH- 
gion be not infamous and criminall" Octavius, who 
answers the objections of his opponent in succession, 
asks, "To what purpose should we make any form or 
representation of God, whose living image, man him- 
self is ? Or what temple should we raise to him, since 
the world, which he has formed, is not able to contain 
him? Were it not much better to dedicate our mind for 
his abode, and consecrate our heart for his altar? 
Nor ought we to be accused of prating in corners, if 
you be either ashamed or afraid to hear us in pubKc." 
Cecilius had also said, "Their nocturnal ceremonies 
and concealed devotions suiiiciently prove the things 
charged against them. And they who tell us, that 
they worship a man, who was crucified, and that the 
wood of a cross constitutes a great part of their de- 
votion, do worthily attribute to them altars suitable to 
their crimes, adoring what they deserve." To these 
things Octavius replied; "We neither worship crosses, 
nor wish to be nailed to them. You yourselves are 
more likely to adore them, who worship wooden 
gods, that are made of the same matter." Cecilius 
had with acrimony asked; "shall we suffer men of an 
unlawful, infamous and desperate faction, without fear 
of punishment, to attempt against the gods — a confe- 
deracy, or rather a conspiracy, into which they are 
not initiated by any holy rites, but by impious crimes, 
practised in their night conventicles, solemn fasts, and 
horrid and inhuman feasts? These are the people that 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 63 

skulk in the dark, and flee the Hght, who are mute in 
pubHc, and full of chat in their private assembUes. 
They slight the dignities of the priesthood, and con- 
temn the sacred purple, &c." Octavius answered; 
"As for our feasts, they are chaste and sober. With 
respect to honors, it doth not follow, that because we 
decline your purple and dignities, that we are the dregs 
of the people; nor are we to be accounted factious, if 
aspiring after the same happiness, we all meet together 
in peace, and retirement." 

Such was the humihating condition of the churches 
in Italy, at the period mentioned. Instead of power 
and dignity, liberty of conscience had no public pro- 
tection, and the true worshippers met, only, under the 
clouds of the night, in sequestered corners. 

Hippolytus, probably an inhabitant of Arabia, was 
contemporary with Minucius Felix; but if a resident 
of Portus, the mouths of the Tiber only divided him 
from the scene of the Octavius. Some fragments on- 
ly are his, in the volume which bears his name. 

The "Chronicon" was the work of another Hippoly- 
tus. The tract "De Consummatione Mundi," which 
treats of Antichrist, is the production of a later age. 
The confidence and ignorance, which it displays, agree 
not with the character given by Photius and others, of 
this father. "The commentary on the story of Su- 
sannah" is equally unworthy. "The accounts of the 
Apostles and Disciples," if his, have been interpolated 
with fictions of later times. The nameless monumental 
statue, now in the Vatican, rescued from the ground 
in 1551, bearing an engraving of the Cycle attributed 
to Hippolytus, is supposed to have been of him ; but 
four-fifths of the titles of the works, appearing on the 
engraved representation of it, are not those ascribed 
to him by Eusebius, Jerom, Photius, and the rest; and 
no one of them is certain. The forms of some of the 
Greek letters are later and so must the statue be, than 
the sixth century. " The apostolic tradition" which is 
now published in his name, rests upon no other evi- 
dence than this stone. Being indeed a modification 



64 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

from the eighth book of the apostolical constitutions, it 
merits equal contempt, and carries its obvious grounds 
of condemnation on its face. Yet w^as it written when 
bishops were parochial, commissioned without impo- 
sition of hands, when a presbytery was in every 
church, when the presbyters were all preachers, and the 
deacons served. "The demonstration against the 
Jewsj" seems to be a commentary on the 69th Psalm. 
Neither in it, nor in any of the fragments of his com- 
mentaries, has any thing been found relative to the go- 
vernment of the church. 

The tract '^Against the heresy of a certain Ncetus," 
the patripassian, contains much good sense and has 
claims of genuineness. In the first paragraph Noetus 
is said to have affirmed, that Christ was the Father, 
and that the Father himself suffered; that Noetus was 
Moses; and his brother, Aaron; and that "the presby- 
ters having heard these things, and cited him, n^sa- 
^vls^ot jt^osxa'ksciafA.svoi, they examined him before the 
church." He denied, but afterwards, defended openly 
his opinions. "The presbyters summoned him a se- 
cond time, condemned"' — and "cast him out of the 
church." If this be a part of the writings of Hippo- 
lytus against heretics, mentioned by Eusebius, Jerom^ 
and Photius, and quoted without name by Epiphanius, 
it accords with all antecedent evidence, and evinces, 
that the presbytery in a church, then, had the power of 
citing, trying, and excommunicating heretics. The 
presbyters in this case acted unquestionably as a pres- 
bytery, which must have had its president, or in the 
language of some in that day, bishop. The whole pro- 
ceedings are described as they should have been, upon 
the supposition, that this had all the officers heretofore 
found in any regularly constituted church. The trial 
and sentence against a heretic, here had by presby- 
ters, well accords with their clerical ordination. Hip- 
polytus says, Noetus was of Smyrna. Epiphanius 
makes Ephesus, the birth place of this heresy, but he 
is a loose writer, and was born more than a century 
after. 



OF CHRISTIAKT CHURCHES. 65 

Origen, who was honoured with the name Adaman- 
tius, was born some time before the end of the second 
and lived unto the middle of the third century. Hav- 
ing taught successfully a philosophic and catechetic 
school in Alexandria, he was at length irregularly or- 
dained in Palestine, a presbyter.* His expositions of 
the Scriptures are often refined and visionary; and his 
doctrines on some points unsound. But as his powers 
of discrimination have justly demanded high respect, so 
his piety was of the purest water. Speaking of the an- 
gels in the Apocalypse, he says; "That certain ruling 
presbyters in the churches were called angels, by John 
in the Apocalypse."^ The same term, ?tgo£ff7co5, was 
used by Paul;*^ and continually by Justin Martyr, for 
that presbyter, who presided in worship, and blessed 
the sacramental elements. This head of the elders 
must have been, for there was no higher ordinary offi- 
cer in any'Christian church, the angel in each of the 
churches in the Apocalypse. Here is the learned Ori- 
gen, a cotemporary for many years with Irenaeus, Cle- 
mens Al. and Tertullian, another decisive witness, that 
the ruling, was not a lay, presbyter. He observes also, 
"With us, reasonings are mild towards those, who re- 
ceive instruction; but it becomes him, who has been 
promoted to the work of teaching, Tt^oiolaiiBvov 'tov 7-oyoa;, 
to be able to convince such as oppose the Gospel." 
**The word rc^oLolafisvov here used for any person, 
who has been elevated to the office of a teacher, is 
used in the same sense, in 1 Thess. v. 12. where, fol- 
lowing, without the article, it is another characteristic 
of those, who had been described as "labouring in the 
word." If it be the duty of a Tt^ocalafisvos president to be 

a Erasmus in his life of Origen, and others, have given too much 
credit to the relations of Eusebius: he was partial to Origen, and 
opposed Porphyry by stories instead of proofs. 

b n^oi<rlZ1a.s tivac tuv iKHKho-iSiV etyyihovt \iyia-Ba.l Tretfot, r^ 
teaetfviitv TuttvoKAKv-^u.'^ De Orat. S. 34, 

c ITim. v. 17. 

d Contra Celsum, lib. vi. p. 279. 

g2 



66 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

able to convince adversaries, it folJov^s that the same 
yt^oKj7a^fvoj, ruling elder of a church was a teacher* 
The word denotes presidency or priority, and being 
associated with the authority to teach, but contrasted 
with the milder instructions of catechist, it sufficiently 
discovers the office to have been that of a presbyter; 
for although the term bishop was now often used for 
Tt^osalc^i, presiding elder; there were, as yet, but the 
two ordinations, one of presbyters, the other of dea- 
cons. 

An argument for the identity of the orders of bish- 
ops and presbyters, has often been drawn from the first 
chapter of Titus, where the terms of office, and the 
personal qualifications are used so promiscuously, as to 
baffle all powers of discrimination. Origen has ob- 
served on the same passage, that, "It is evident, that 
in the designation of those denominated bishops, Paul 
delineating what kind of a man, it was fit,. should be a 
bishop, has directed, that he be a teacher, saying, it 
becomes him to be able to confute gainsayers.^^^ Here the 
presbyters, whom Titus was left in Crete to ordain, are 
declared by Origen, to have been the persons, whom 
Paul immediately afterwards denominates bishops; 
and if these were all to be teachers, which is here also 
affirmed, they were of one kind only, and none of 
them laymen. 

A passage has sometimes been quoted and unfairly 
translated, on prayer. " Besides those which are gen- 
eral, there is a certain debt to the widow, who has 
been received by the church, tc^ xv^O'? — o^saij, and ano- 
ther to the deacon, xao i'ts^a Siaxovov, and another to the 
presbyter, xao oxkyi Tie.^G^vts^ov^hni the debt to the bishop 

is the most weighty, xai sjtiSxojiov 8^ o(p£i%.rj ^a^vjalrj saltVy 

being required by the Saviour of the whole church, and 
avenged, unless it be paid." ^ 

If the debt to the presbyter was thought by Origen, to 
be different from that due the bishop, he has not so ex- 

e Orig-. contra Celsum. lib. iii. p. 140, 
f Orig". Uipi. fv^nc. 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 67 

pressed it The translation, "another to presbyters, 
and another to bishops" is indefensible. Yet if we 
suppose Origen to have intended, that the debt due the 
bishop was weightiest, because of his care and res- 
ponsibility, as the presiding presbyter, whose superin- 
tending anxiety for the whole church, laid a just foun- 
dation of a claim upon the people for proportional re- 
muneration, the passage will be a just representation 
of facts, in the government of the churches at that 
time; and the adoption of the word bishop in the sense 
of rt^ofcjT'coj, ruling elder would have been no more than 
a conformity to a mode of expression, which was be- 
ginning to be adopted in his day. But the debt to the 
bishop not being expressed to be another, may be taken 
to be that, which was before declared to be due to the 
presbyter, and what may be said of the bishop's claim 
may be grammatically viewed, as affirmed of the last 
of the three kinds of debts, which had been enumerat- 
ed. This interpretation is supported also, by the cir- 
cumstance, that he speaks of the officers of the 
church, sometimes as presbyters, and deacons, and at 
others as bishops, presbyters, and deacons.^ But upon 
any interpretation there is no ground to imagine, that 
he meant by the presbyter, a layman. 

The Philocalia were collected more than a century 
after Origen's death. To quote this production in sup- 
port of those writings from whence they are presumed 
to have been taken, may be proper. But they ought not 
to be deemed competent evidence of any thing, not 
found in his works. A mistaken passage has been 
brought from the Philocalia to prove "the succession 
StaSoxriv of the apostlcs," but the writer is speaking of 
the handing dow?i of the Scriptures by the apostles. 

He censures those deacons, who coveted " the first 
seats of those, who are denominated presbyters, and 
such as laid schemes to be called presbyters ;•* and al- 
leges, that as Christ washed the feet of his disciples, 

s Tract No. v. on Matt, and Horn. vii. on Jeremiah. 
h Tract 24, on Matt. 



68 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

^'so a bishop should minister as a servant, to his fel- 
lov^^ servants."^ His complaint of those bishops and 
presbyters, v^ho were unlearned and flagitious^- may 
have provoked his own bishop, by whose obloquy his 
character was assailed. Had the office of Demetrius 
been by ordination, or resulted from seniority, those 
jealousies would probably never have arisen; nor had 
the church at Alexandria been deprived of the unrival- 
led learning, and exemplary piety of Origen. 

That there should be one, however designated among 
the plurality of equals, in every public body, to facili- 
tate their operations, or lead in duties, is suggested by 
the experience of all assemblies, civnl and ecclesiastical. 
The Greeks denominated him 7t^oj(y7wj, president, the 
identical term adopted by the first Christian presbyte- 
ries for thQix primus. The seven apocalyptic churches 
were indirectly addressed, through that officer, by the 
name angel, chosen because less publicly known, but 
we have found not one instance in any uninspired 
writing of the use of that name in the same sense. To 
show how this unordained presidency over equals, 
grew into parcohial episcopacy, all the credible evi- 
dence which has hitherto occurred, has been present- 
ed. But every effort to discover, even the existence 
of lay elders, or of any inferior grade of presbyters, 
has totally failed; neither has there been found a single 
word of such a diversity, nor the idea of such an offi- 
cer, in any church. If such a class of men had existed 
in the apostoHc churches, it could not have escaped 
detection. If the Scriptures had been understood, by 
the apostles and evangelists to warrant it, the grade 
must have existed, and would certainly have appeared. 
The conclusion is consequently undeniable, that those, 
who find lay presbyters in the New Testament, have 
made a discovery of that, of which the inspired men, 
who wrote it, never entertained an idea. 

i Tract 31,on Matt. k Tract 15, on Matt, 



SECTION VIII. 



Cyprian was chosen bishop of his church by the people, against a majority of 
the presbyters. — The great promoter of episcopal power. — He presided over 
one church or congregation only, and had no idea of diocesan episcopacy.— 
Professing it his duty to act only with the presbyters, he availedhimself of every 
opportunity of acting prior to them. — He often justified his conduct by tlte 
pretences of visions, suggestions, and dreams. — The presbyters of Carthage 
over whom he presided, had not distinct assemblies ; the flock was one, and 
no more. — This bishop was chosen by the people from among the presbyters, 
and Cyprian is the first and earliest authority for bishops being commission- 
ed by other bishops ; how it was done, is not shown ; and five of the eight 
presbyters being opposed to him, it is not discernible how otherwise it could 
have been effected. — The apostolical constitutions had probably no existence 
at this period. 

Thascius Cyprianus was a native of Africa, and a 
celebrated teacher of rhetoric in Carthage. Convinced 
by Coecilius, a presbyter, about the middle of the third 
century, he adopted his name at his baptism ; was, in 
the compass of a year, ordained a presbyter ; and, in 
the next, made bishop by the suffrage of the people, 
but against the opinion of five of the eight presbyters 
of the church.* He soon deserted his charge, retiring 
from persecution. Censured by his people, and the 
Christians at Rome, he alleged, among other defences, 
a divine admonition, revealed by vision. His sudden 
change from GentiKsm, and almost simultaneous pro- 
motions ; his conscious possession of superior talents, 
with consequent impatience of instruction and igno- 
rance of evangelical doctrines, rendered him the vic- 
tim of numerous and destructive errors. His native 
ambition, stimulated by opposition, and supported by 
mistaken conceptions of priestly power, led him to 
employ the protracted period of his retirement in epis-- 

a Yide Epist. 43. p. 227. 



70 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

tolary correspondence, not only with his ov^n forsaken 
charge, but with the bishops and presbyters of all the 
churches in the civilized world, wherever there existed 
inquietude. With him heresy and schism appeared 
convertible terms, and discipline, rather than truth, the 
proper instrument of their destruction. The bishops 
and church at Rome were successively dependent on 
his guidance, or jealous of his influence. The nume- 
rous bishops of Africa found him a bond of union, nor 
were the churches of Spain and Cappadocia, opposite 
extremes, insensible of his ascendency. His ideas of 
episcopal unity, and of the necessity of intercourse and 
mutual support among bishops, then every where, pa- 
rochial, probably laid the foundation of hierarchy in 
the church of Christ. The multiplication of presby- 
ters became necessary in the cities, as the number of 
Christians increased, more churches than one being in 
them now prohibited. The danger in times of perse- 
cution of convening in multitudes, the instruction of 
catechumeni apart from the church, the frequency of 
schisms, and other circumstances, evince, that diffe- 
rent presbyters conducted worship, at least, occasion- 
ally, in separate places. But neither has diocesan 
episcopacy, nor a solitary instance of a ruHng or lay 
elder as yet occurred. Had there existed more than 
one congregation in Carthage or Rome, they must 
have appeared in Cyprian's letters ; for it is not pro- 
bable that any other schisms, or heresies arose in either 
of those cities, within the period of his letters, than 
those which he has mentioned. The minuteness of 
his descriptions of persons and things, renders it cer- 
tain, that had he been placed over more than one 
church, it would have appeared. On the contrary, no 
separate churches, no diversity of communions, no 
seduction of any particular section of his charge are 
seen ; but though convening in small numbers, and 
possibly in different places, they are considered one 
church, having the same officers. 

The bishop and presbyters at Carthage sat on the 
same bench, were all, in the language of the day, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 71 

priests, to instruct and administer ordinances, acted in 
concert in all judgments, excommunications, and res- 
torations; and, except when Cyprian assumed the 
power, but for which he always offered an excuse, they 
joined in ordinations. In the absence of the bishop, 
we find the presbyters refusing the communion to 
Gains a co-presbyter, and to a deacon, in which Cy- 
prian acknowledges, they acted uprightly and by 
rule.^ Though evidently not scrupulous in the as- 
sumption of power, he trespassed only where he was 
sure of support, and never ventured to ordain a pres- 
byter, but in the presbytery. 

When omitting bishops, readers, subdeacons, aco- 
lythes, he names only prmpositi and diaconi, it is evi- 
dence that the two original orders were not forgotten. 
" Since it becomes all to be observant of good order, 
much rather is it proper that the presbyters and dea- 
cons, jo?*cej905ito5 et diaconos, should take care of thisjwho 
may afford an example and proof to others, by their 
conversation and manners.'"^ At first opposed by 
the majority of his co-presbyters, and not yet secure 
of new ones in v^hom he could confide, his language 
was very different from his after conduct. He de- 
clared " that he had resolved from the commencement 
of his episcopate, to do nothing privately by his own 
opinion, without the counsel of his presbytery, and 
without the consent of the people.""* This represen- 
tation, extorted by circumstances, was in unison with 
those established customs, in the changing of which 
he was too successful. Hitherto each original church 
was governed by its presbytery, the president, jt^ussTfco?, 
of w^hich is called in Cyprian, sometimes prcepositus, 
but chiefly episcopus. Such presbytery, with its presi- 
dent, had been heretofore competent to the manage- 

^ Page 217, Ep. 34. — Integre etcam disciplina fecistis. 

c Ep. 4. p. 174. 

d Quando a primordio eplscopatus mei stataerim, nihil sine con- 
silio vestro, et sine consensu plebis, mea privatim sententia gerere 
— de lis quae vel gesta sunt vel gerenda, sicut honor mutuus poscit 
in commune tractabimus. p. 192. 



72 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

merit of the ecclesiastic government and worship of 
the Christians in each city, because of the paucity of 
their number. Cyprian, by the erroneous principle, 
that w^here a church has been planted no other ought 
to be erected, professedly an antidote to schism, at 
the same time enhanced episcopal influence, and laid 
the foundation of w^hat he did not foresee, diocesan 
government. Though tumid with self-importance, 
and enamored of ecclesiastical influence, it is possible 
that his opposition to the erection of a second altar, 
church, and bishop, in any place, was at least prima- 
rily to suppress heresy. He wrote to Cornehus at 
Rome, who had informed him of the ordination of 
Novatian there, that it was irregular, because where 
there is one bishop there cannot be another, and pro- 
nounces him a spurious and rival head, out of the 
church.^ He argues that Cornelius succeeded Fa- 
bianus, and that Novatian had no predecessor at 
Rome. His crime was, therefore, that of Jeroboam. 
If Novatian worshipped the true God, so did Korah. 
Why there could not have been a second church at 
Rome, if the number of converts had justified it, was 
neither asked, nor answered. That all new assem- 
blies were heretical, soon became, by his influence, 
the popular opinion. Cyprian contended that those 
who are in error, have not the Holy Spirit ; that this 
is necessary to him who baptizes, because he who 
baptizes, remits sins. He affirmed also, that the water 
must be made clean, sanctified by the priest ; " that it 
may be able to wash away the sins of him who is 
baptized," which is proved by the passage, " / will 
pour clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.''^^ From 
such reasonings he concluded, that their ordinations 
and their baptisms were void. Firmilianus, bishop of 
Caesarea in Cappadocia, in his letter to Cyprian, e says 

e Adulteinim et contrarium caput extra ecclesiam. Page 231. 

f Pages 295, 296, 300. 

g Epist. 75. — *' In ecclesia constituta sit, ubi przesident majores 
natu, qui et baptizandi, et manum imponendi, ordinandi possident 
potestatem." 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 73 

of all heretics, " that if they divide themselves from 
the church of God, they can have nothing of power 
or of grace ; seeing all pov^^er and grace are placed 
in the church, where the elders preside, who possess 
the power of baptizing, imposition of hands, and ordi- 
nation." The presbyters, not in exclusion of their 
president, are here asserted to be the highest officers 
of the churches, and rightly ; for bishops had no other 
authority to baptize or ordain, than as they were pres- 
byters. The words majores natu are a correct trans- 
lation of rtpMjSvT'fpot, shown to be taken in an official 
sense, by the specification of powers which were 
peculiarly those of presbyters. 

Cyprian, whose efforts had been to acquire language 
and gesture, not science ; whose elocution, not his su- 
perior attainments in doctrine and experience, had 
gained him ascendency, was sensible of his prefer- 
ment, and proportionally soured by opposition. Whilst 
he excused the martyrs for their kindness to the laps- 
ed, Cyprian blamed those presbyters and deacons 
who had received them to church privileges ; and 
arrogantly directed, that they should be kept from the 
communion, until they had pleaded their cause before 
him, and before the confessors themselves, and before 
all the people.^ This letter was directed to the pres- 
byters and deacons of a single congregation, who 
were to be assembled together with the people to de- 
cide the cases of the lapsed. But no disparity appears 
in this or any other of the letters, among presbyters, 
except the presidential dignity, all being confessedly 
and universally clerical. 

By his discrimination between presbyters and dea- 
cons, Cyprian plainly shows, he had no idea of lay 
presbyters. " Deacons should remember that the 
Lord chose apostles, that is, bishops and presbyters, 
apostolos, id est, episcopos et prcepositos ; and that, after 
the ascension of the Lord, the apostles appointed 

^ " Acturi et apud nos, et apud confessores ipsos et apud ple- 
bem universam, causam suam." Ep. 16, p. 196. 

H 



74 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

deacons the servants of the episcopate and the 
church."^ 

The fortieth letter has been strangely distorted, on 
the one hand to prove the commission of cardinals, 
and on the other to establish the existence of lay pres- 
byters. Whilst Cyprian v^as in retirement, a layman 
of the church at Carthage, whose name v^as Numidi- 
cus, being arraigned, confessed and suffered, but sur- 
vived. This confessor, Cyprian, secure of the popu- 
lar voice, directs to be numbered, and to sit with the 
presbyters. No duty is expressed to be performed by 
him as a presbyter, until the bishop should arrive, and 
he should be regularly ordained, and promoted to the 
higher grade. The letter may be freely rendered 
thus : 

" Cyprian to the brethren most beloved, and longed 
for, the presbyters and deacons, and all the people? 
greeting : 

" It has become my duty to announce to you, be- 
loved brethren, that which pertains to the common 
exultation, and highest honor of our church. Be it 
known, therefore, to you, that God has vouchsafed to 
discover to us, and direct, that Numidicus, renowned 
by the clearest truth of a confession, and elevated by 
the honor of fortitude and faith, may be enrolled a 
presbyter in the number of the presbyters of Carthage, 
and sit with us among the clergy.^ By his encou- 
raging counsels he has sent before him to glory a 
large company of martyrs through a shower of stones 
and of fire, witnessing with pious exultation the same 
fiery consumption, or rather salvation of his own wife, 
clinging to his side. Broiled in the fire, and then over- 
whelmed in stones, he was abandoned with the dead ; 
but whilst the tender solicitude of a pious daughter 

i Epist. 3, p. 173. 

k Nam admonitos nos et instructos sciatis dignatione divina, ut 
Numidicus presbyter adscribatur presbyterorum Carthageniensium 
nuraero, et nobiscum sedeat in clero, luce clarissima confessionis 
illustris, et vii'tutis ac fidei honore sublimis, &c. Epist. 40, p. 
225. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 76 

was searching for the dead body of her parent, he is 
found with symptoms of life, drawn out, and recov- 
ered from the mangled remnants of dead comp&.nions, 
he has survived, against his own desires. But the 
conspicuous cause of his continuance is, that the Lord 
might join him to the clergy of our church, and adorn 
w^th glorious priests the company of our presbyters 
desolated by lapses. And when God shall permit, by 
his protection, my presence with you, his promotion 
shall be effected to the higher order in his worship. * 
In the meantime, let that which has been mentioned be 
done, that we may accept this gift of God with thanks- 
giving, hoping, from divine mercy, more ornaments of 
the same kind, that the strength of the church being 
renewed, he may adorn our ecclesiastical council 
with men of like mildness and humility. Brethren, 
most desired and dear, my wish is your everlasting 
welfare." 

The language of this letter plainly shows that Nu- 
midicus was not previously a presbyter ; its effect 
was neither an ordination, nor a direction to accom- 
plish one, but an appointment to a future commission. 
A ruHng elder is not named ; and, in the modern sense 
of the phrase, was probably an idea of which neither 
C3rprian, nor any who preceded him, had formed a 
conception. " Sedeat in clerd'^ shows, that all who 
sat with him, were clerical ; on this bench he was to 
sit prior to his promotion. If promotion, promovebitur, 
meant any thing more than the ceremony of ordina- 
tion, then he was to be raised to a bench above that 
of the clergy ; but such there was not, because the ' 
nobiscum determines that the same was the seat also 
of the bishop. In no enumeration of officers in the 
church, found in Cyprian, or in any preceding writer, 
has this imaginary presbyter ever appeared ; but of 
the diligence with which the nondescript has been 

1 Et promovebitur equldem cum Deus permlserit, ad ampliorem 
locum religionis suae, quando in prsesentiam, protegente Domino, 
venerimus. Epist. 40, p. 225. 



76. THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 



unsuccessfully sought, the fanciful perversion of this 
passage, appearing in several American productions, 
will remain a curious monument. Cyprian defended 
his opinion against the reception of the lapsed, as he 
did his escape from persecution, by his dreams, v^hich 
he promised to disclose upon his return to the church.*^ 
He also claimed the inspiration of suggestion." In 
the cases of Aurelius and Celerinus, w^ho had become 
confessors, having the divine suffrage, as he thought, 
he needed not to w^ait for a consultation with the peo- 
ple, and ordained them to be readers." 

Those who have absurdly taken the Tt^ofcfTcoT'f? of 
Paul to mean, not presiding, but subordinate ruling 
elders, have sapiently understood the doctores audien- 
tium,^ or presbyters, who in some private place taught 
the catechumeni, to be a distinct order, and implying 
others who were inferior. The letter is short. " Cy- 
prian to his brethren, the presbyters and deacons, 
greeting: Most esteemed brethren, lest any thing 
should be unknown to you, either of what has been 
written to me, or of w^hat I have returned in answer, 
I have sent you a copy of each epistle, and I trust that 
what I have repHed will not be displeasing to you. 
But I ought in this letter to disclose to you the fact, 
that from the pressure of necessity. I have sent the 
letters to the clergy of the city [Rome.] And because 
it was proper that I should write by clergymen ; but 
I know that the^ most of ours are absent, and that the 
few who remain, are scarcely sufficient for the labor 
of the daily service, it was necessary to constitute 
some new ones, who might be sent. Know, therefore, 
that I have made Saturus a reader, and the confessor 
Optatus a subdeacon, whom we had some time ago in 
common council, placed next to the clergy; either 
when we gave the lesson once and again to Saturus on 
the day of Easter ; or afterwards, aut modo cum pres- 

m Epist. xvi. p. 194. 

" Placuit nobis, Sancto Spiritu suggerente et Domino per 
visiones multas et manifestas admonente. Epist. 57, p. 254. 
o Pages 222, 223. l> Epist. 29. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 77 

byteris doctoribus lectores diligenter probaremus, when be- 
ing with the presbyters occupied in teaching [the cate- 
chumeni,] and having dihgently made trial of readers, 
we appointed Optatus among the readers as a teacher 
of the hearers, Optatum inter lectores doctorem audien- 
tium constituimus ; whilst examining whether their 
qualifications might agree with those which ought to 
be in such as are preparing for the clerical office. 
Nothing, therefore, has been done by me in your ab- 
sence ; but that which was commenced before in the 
common council of us all, has been finished, by urgent 
necessity. I desire, dear brethren, your continued 
welfare, and remembrance of me. Salute the brother- 
hood : farewell." In this letter, we have a descrip- 
tion of that teaching which is performed by presby- 
ters and readers, of the audientes, or catechumeni. 
Those who by any means were awakened, and had a 
desire to understand the Christian religion, were in- 
structed as in a school ; they who taught them were 
doctores, teachers ; and if it were their only employ- 
ment in the Christian church, they were denominated 
catechists.i" These catechumeni are expressly distin- 
guished by the writer from the people, plebs, by the 
name audientes,^ The doctores audientium were, there- 
fore, as such, not the public teachers of the people, but 
the teachers of the catechumeni. This instruction 
was superintended, and partly performed by the pres- 
byters, but the readers were appointed to exercise 
their talents in the work. And this letter shows, that 
Cyprian and those presbyters, as teachers of the cate- 
chumeni, in private, did, on some such occasion, make 
trial of Optatus, and actually appointed him to be 
a reader. The trial of Saturus was not in the school 
of the catechumeni, nor are the presbyters said to 
have been then occupied in teachings but it happened 

q Audientibus etiam — vigilantia vestra non desit, implorantibus 
divinam, &c. Epist. 18 — in eorum numero, qui apud nos catechi- 
zati sunt-habentur. Ep. 75, p. 325, 

r Vide Epist. 18. p. 198. 

h2 



78 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

in the congregation, by directing him to read, several 
times, public lessons on Easter. 

That one presbyter presided — that some were 
chiefly employed in discoursing and others in reading 
in the congregation according to their talents, must 
be supposed, for all these were duties belonging to the 
office of presbyters. That they acted also as doctores, 
patient teachers of the heathenish audientes or cate- 
chumeni in private places, is supported by abundant 
evidence, besides this letter. If it affords a tittle of 
proof that presbyters were of different orders or kinds, 
let it be shown fairly, and not by the mistakes of one 
or two good men, who have differed from numerous 
and more competent judges. 

. He speaks of presbyters as " honored with the di- 
vine priesthood, appointed by a clerical ministry, 
bound to serve only at the altar and the sacrifices, and 
under obligation to find leisure for nothing but prayers 
and discourses.' They are said to be conjoined with 
the bishop in the sacerdotal honor.* In no instance 
is a discrimination made between presbyters, except 
that Cyprian claimed the title of bishop, whilst he de- 
nominated them his co-presbyters, " compresbyteri nos- 
triy'^ The modern inferior lay or ruling elders are 
never once mentioned in his writings, but the samfe 
profound silence as to this unscriptural order, is found 
in Cyprian, which has been observed in every writer 
before him. The supposition on the other hand, that 
the eight co-presbyters of Cyprian were over distinct 
assemblies, is not merely gratuitous, but contrary to 
many passages in his letters, which show that the 
flock was one and no more. The presbytery was not 
of many charges, but of one ; and the bishop not a 

mere moderator, but a president of the worshiping 

s Singuli divino sacerdotio honorati, et in clerico ministerio con- 
stituti, non nisi altari, et sacrificio deservire, et precibus atque ora- 
tionibus vacare debeant. Page 109. 

t Qui cum episcopo presbyteri sacerdotali honore conjunct!, p, 
272. 

u Page 169. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 79 

assembly, as well as of the deliberating and judging 
church-presbytery. 

That upon the demise of a bishop his place was 
filled by an election of the people/ and that the suo 
cessful presbyter was commissioned by the bishops of 
other churches, we do at present read in the letters of 
Cyprian. At any prior period this new order does not 
satisfactorily appear. To them Cyprian concedes the 
liberty of doing what they choose,^^ no one of them 
being accountable to any other bishop,-'' but to God 
only.y Also, every bishop is the vicar of Christ,^ over 
the Christians, who reside within the geographical 
precincts of his own parish ; and every teacher there, 
not of his church, be his doctrines what they may, is 
a schismatic.^* 

Bishops were entitled to the same honor, and the 
same obedience, which was due to the high-priest 
among the Jews, and the Mosaic laws for the protec- 
tion of the priesthood, and the punishment of offenders, 
were considered by Cyprian as still in force. Thus 
was paved the way for all the mischief and bloodshed 
that have followed in the church. Cyprian's declara- 
tion that " he had determined to do nothing without 
the presbytery," and his apologies, when he made 
Saturus a reader, and Optatus a subdeacon ; when 
also he promoted Aurehus and Celerinus, and ap- 
pointed Numidicus to be futurely ordained to be a 
presbyter, only show that he was restrained by the 
well known antecedent usages in the church ; but Ids 
doing the thing, was full proof that he did not think as 
he spoke, but intended to arrogate higher powers, his 

^' Populi universi^uffragio. Epist. 59, p. 261. 

w Unus quisque episcoporum quod putat faciat habens arbilrii 
sui liberam potestatem. Ep. 73. 

X OyTs yAg T/c iTTKTKOTrov atvrov Kst.Bta-<Tii>nv, his language in the 
first council of Carthage. Zonarae, p. 275. 

y Actum suum disponit et dirigit unusquisque episcopus ration- 
em sui Domino redditurus. Ep. 55. 

^ Judex vice Christi cogitatur. Ep. 39. 

aa Nec curiosos esse debere quid ille doceat, cum foris doceat 
Epist. 55. 



80 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

piety and veracity to the contrary notvi^ithstanding. 
Several passages in his letters accord with the original 
idea of tw^o orders, those in authority, prcepositi, and 
deacons. Yet having been made a bishop by the 
votes of the people^^ against the will of five-eighths of 
the presbyters, he was ever vigilant to support himself 
by encroachments on the rights of the presbytery, and 
indefatigable in his exertions to convince his colleagues 
of their transcendent powers. 

The ancient form of the designation of a Tt^of (j7oj, or 
presiding presbyter, is not shown. But in this book 
it is denominated an ordination, and said to be by im- 
position of hands.'^^ The ordination of Cyprian, in 
whatsoever manner, was probably by bishops, because 
of the opposition of all the presbyters but three, as 
those of Cornelius*^*^ and others are expressed to have 
been. This device exalted bishops into a new and 
superior, though unscriptural order. They became 
colleagues, maintained correspondence, frequently as- 
sembled, made laws, and supported each other's dig- 
nity and power. 

In the ApostoHcal Constitutions, instead of an impo- 
sition of hands, the deacons held the open gospels upon 
the head of the intended bishop, during the conse- 
crating prayer. Nor is x^i^odsaia, that we find, used 
either in the canons or the constitutions for the ordina- 
tion of a bishop, but always x^i'C^'^ovia. That these 
constitutions were not written by the apostles is cer- 
tain ; that they were not know^n to Cyprian is clear, 
for he would have used them ; that they did not then 
exist is probable, because first quoted by Epiphanius ; 
that imposition of hands should have been in practice 
in Cyprian's day, or before the constitutions were 

bb Populi universi sufFragio. Ep. 59, 52. 

cc Ep. 67. 

dd That Cornelius, after his ordination as a presbyter, was ordjun- 
ed a bishop of Rome, Cyprian expressly asserts. Ep, 69, No co- 
temporary evidence which we have ever seen, or of which we have 
heard, establishes the same thing- of any preceding" bishop of Rome. 
Certainly Fabrianus, liis immediate predecessor, was made of a 
layman a bishop. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 81 

made, is unaccountable and incredible, because it 
must have been given in them. Whatever, therefore, 
appears in Cyprian concerning imposition of hands^ 
upon one who was already an elder, is probably an 
interpolation. That Cyprian was beheaded in 258 
may be received, but his life by Pontius, though an- 
cient, deserves very little respect. 

The works of Cyprian, if unadulterated, discover a 
new order of presbyters by episcopal ordination, also 
readers, subdeacons, acolyths, and virgins. By the' 
same authority also are established sacrifices for the 
dead, the- intercession of deceased saints for the living, 
holy water and remission of sins by baptism, and that 
there is no salvation out of the church. He inculcated 
the doctrine of the keys, but although Rome was 
greater than Carthage, he denied that Stephen had 
more power than he possessed ; and died under the 
anathema of the successor of Peter. What has been 
its effect on him, and whether his subsequent canoni- 
zation has afforded him rehef, another day will dis- 
close. 



SECTION IX. 

Firmilian speaks of a plurality of teachers in the same church; of annual 
meetings of the presidents and presbyters; and of the right of presbyters to 
baptize, impose hands and ordain; Gregory Thaumaturgus and his genu- 
ine writings; his first episcopal charge was one deacon and seventeen indi- 
viduals. Hitherto every bishop has been such in one worshiping assembly 
only. Of Methodius. Of Arnobius. Of Lactantius and his writings.- 

Firmilian presided in the church at Csesarea, in Cap- 
padocia. He wrote an epistle in Greek, about the mid- 
dle of the third century, in answer to a letter which 
he had received from Cyprian, by the hands of Roga- 
tian, a deacon. A translation only remains, which 
appears in the works of Cyprian, and is attributed to 
him* When Firmilian speaks of the abounding of 
knowledge, and the multiplication of teachers, as an 
event anticipated by an apostle, and provided against 
by the rule, that one should be silent, if any thing were 
revealed to another, he alludes not obscurely to a plu- 
rality of teachers in the respective churches.*" After- 
wards he observes; "It obtains among us necessarily, 
that through successive years, the presbyters and 
presidents meet together, to set in order those things, 
which have been committed to our care ; and if there 
be any matters of more serious importance, that they 
may be directed, by public advice."*^ In another 
place, having asserted that those who are at Rome, 
have not in all respects observed those things which 
were delivered from the first, and that they in vainpre- 

a vide Cyprian, Epist. 75. p. 319. 

b 1 Corinth, xiv. 30. _ 

c Qua ex causa necessario lit ut per singnlos annos, seniores 
et prsepositi in unum conveniamus ad disponenda ea, quse curse 
nostrse commissa sunt, ut siqua graviora sunt, communi consUio 
dirigantur . 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 83 

tend the authority of the apostles, he aftervs^ards af- 
firms ; " that all power and grace are placed in the 
church, w^here the elders preside, who have the powei- 
also of baptizing, and of imposing the hands, and of 
ordaining. For as it is not lawful for a heretic to 
ordain, nor to impose the hands, so neither to baptize, 
nor to do any thing sacred, or spiritual; seeing he is a 
stranger to that holiness which is spiritual and the 
work of God.'"^ The epistle closes with a salutation 
directed to the bishops and clergy in Africa. The 
word elders has been no where else found in the epis- 
tle. In the first instance, they are named before their 
presidents, in a description of the assembHng of the 
officers of many churches in an annual council; and 
in the second, without particularizing the presiding 
presbyters, although speaking of a single church, he 
means the whole bench. Of presbyters he affirms, 
that they have the lawful right to administer baptism, 
to impose hands and to ordain. This venerable man 
unquestionably represents facts, as they were in his 
day; and is a positive and credible witness, that the 
presidents of the churches, called bishops in the last 
sentence of the letter, had not, as yet, at least in Asia, 
monopolized the power of ordination. In the original 
letter, the term n^of$7«7f ? or u^or^yovfisvoo was most pro- 
bably used, where we read prcepositi, which we have 
rendered presidents, they being undoubtedly the bishops, 
who moderated the board of presbyters, in the respec- 
tive congregations. The churches of Cappadocia 
thus appear to have retained the names of their offi- 
cers, which had been given by the apostles and evan- 
gelists at the period of their creation. The majores 
natu, seniores or elders, being baptizers and ordainers, 
were of course not laymen. Blondell on this testi- 
mony of Firm '^ tan says, "nequis ullos ab ordination um 
jure seniores arcendos putet;" which though directed 

d Omnis potestas et gratia in ecclesia constituta sit, ubi prsesi- 
dent majores natu, qui et baptizandi, et manum imponendi et or- 
dinandi possident potestatem, &,c. 



B4 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

against an ordination exclusively episcopal, with no 
less propriety may be spoken against lay presbyters, 
because the right to ordain appearing thus to have 
been vested in elders, they were all clerical. Neither 
can the monopoly of the ordaining power by bishops, 
nor the protrusion of elders from the clerical office, be 
vindicated, except by conceding to the church the right 
of erecting new offices for its government which is an 
invasion of the rightful authority of the great Head of 
the church. 

Theodorus, who was afterwards denominated Gre^ 
gory, and by the credulity of his age, ThaumaturguSf 
was a native of Pontus, and of an honourable pagan 
family. At the age of fourteen he lost his father. Af- 
terwards he became the pupil of Origen, at Caesarea 
in Palestine, with whom he studied five years, and at 
length the ?t^oo7aT'7?j,^ or bishop of the church at Neo 
Cassarea in Pontus; which according to Eusebius he 
retained until his death, A. D. 265. His oration pro- 
nounced on leaving Origen, which still remains, is elo- 
quent, but adulatory. Yet it speaks him then a Chris- 
tian, which is more than can be collected from the Phi- 
locaha. His Metaphrasis of the Ecclesiastes, or as 
Jerom styles it, his Ecphrasis, is a short, practical and 
pleasing representation of the experience and advice 
of the aged wise-man. The creed ascribed to Thau- 
maturgus by Gregory Nyssen, in which it is affirmed, 
"that there is in the Trinity nothing created, and no- 
thing subordinate,"^ has been thought by some to bear 
the marks of a later hand, but the autograph of a 
creed, in some form, probably existed when Nyssen 
wrote. Tfie exposition of faith,^ and the twelve ana- 
themas, also printed with his works are evidently of 
times more modern. His eleven canons, which he 
gave as advice for the government of a society, upon 
which barbarians had made an incursion in the reign of 

e U^oa-litTov t»? f.x.n'KiXTictg v/um T^>iyogtov. — Basil. Epis. 62. 
^Ovhovv KTia-lov t/ ^ J'ovKov iv ryt rptcth, &c. Greg. Nys. 2. Vol, 
979. Greg. Thaum. p. 1. 
s ExQsiT/s T«f KATUfAigog TTKrliODg. Greg. Thaum. p.97. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 85 

Gallienus, appear founded in Christian prudence. The 
last canon has been doubted to be genuine, but its de- 
scription of the hearers, as standing next within the 
door; the catechumens as standing immediately be- 
fore them, and behind the congregation of behevers; 
and of the exclusion of the two former after the read- 
ing of the Scriptures and the delivery of a discourse, 
and before the prayers and the sacramental ordinance, 
may have accorded with the manner of conducting 
public worship in some places, at the period of this fa- 
ther. Baronius and Du Pin agree in the rejection of 
all the sermons ascribed to him, and found with his 
works; and also of the treatise concerning the soul ; 
all of which evidently appear to have been the produc- 
tions of a later age. Gregory Nyssen, who hved a 
century after him, affirms, as others also do, that he 
was made bishop of Neo Cassarea in Pontus against 
his inclination, and in his absence,^ by Phedimus who 
presided over (xaSfjyov^svov) the church of Amasia, a 
neighbouring city, the birth place of Strabo. But it is 
subjoined, that after a little time, the usual rites were 
accomplished upon him. That extraordinary powers 
were conferred by this ordination, was the belief of the 
antistes of Amasia himself; and Gregory Nyssen has 
labored with equal assiduity and credulity to establish 
the same thing. It is also the concurrent testimony of 
others, that Gregory Thaumaturgus said at his death, 
he had had but seventeen Christians in his charge, when 
he was ordained. His episcopal authority could there- 
fore have been neither over presbyters, for his only 
subordinate was one deacon; nor diocesan, for he had 
the oversight of no more than seventeen people. This 
fact, in perfect accordance with the history of the 
church prior to this period, evinces, that there were 
but two orders, one to preach and rule, and the other 
to serve. The like silence as to presbyters is observ- 
ed, in the account of his ordination of Alexander, 
upon the invitation of the church of Comana. Nys- 

^ Tov {rujuoLTtitees ov tta^ovta. Greg, Nyss. 2. rol. p. 979. 



68 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

sen represents him as superseding the suffrages of the 
people, by substituting and ordaining a collier, who 
had been mentioned sarcastically as the dregs of the 
people.' No presbyters are mentioned; there v^as one 
ordainer, one ordained, and one flock, Basil in vindi- 
cation of the antiquity of the doxology^ in which the 
Holy Spirit is named, having alleged, that Gregory 
Thaumaturgus had given it to the church at Neo 
Cassarea in Pontus, which was still in the use of it, 
has ranked his spiritual gifts with those of the pro* 
phets and apostles.'"^ But though Basil, and his brother 
Gregory Nyssen, with some in our own day, have 
deemed him an extraordinary man; yet no evidence 
of such wonder-working powers appearing in his writ- 
ings, it is probably safer to impute the strange things 
related by Nyssen, to credulity; and to account him 
no more than a faithful and successful pastor of a sin* 
gle flock, which by his instrumentality, had been col- 
lected in a city almost wholly given to idolatry. In 
all that remains of this father, nothing has been found 
either of lay presbyters, or of episcopal diocesan au- 
thority. If, as Jerom, Theodoret, and others, have al- 
leged, he was of higher estimation, than his brother 
Athenodorus, Firmilian, Helenus, and other bishops of 
his day, the inference is fair, that they also were min» 
isters of single congregations, as all the bishops, who 
have fallen hitherto under our notice have certainly 
been. 

Of the productions of Methodius, mentioned by Je- 
rom, Photius, and others, several fragments with "the 
banquet of the virgins," have reached our times. 
Having been written about the end of the third cen- 
tury, they have also been examined with care, but 
found to contain nothing, that relates to the govern- 
ment of the church, or that can be of any importance. 
His representations of Origen are feeble, and serve 
merely to show, that Methodius was not carried away 

i Upoa-ifyit Tm 0Sft> cT/it ugaa-vvn? tov etv/^st Kctret to» ViVo/ulo-iAiYev 
TgoTTov TiKiiaa-cLi. Greg". Nyss. 2 vol. p. 995. 
k Basil, op. 2. vol. p. 160. 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 87 

by such dreams, though at best a miserable commen- 
tator of the sacred volumes. He is said to have been 
a bishop, that is in the sense of the term, in his day, 
the presiding presbyter of a single congregation, but 
where his particular charge was, is not settled. He 
probably lived in Lycia, and died a martyr under the 
Diocletian persecution. 

Arnobius lived about the termination of the third cen- 
tury, and wTote as a Christian.^ He is said neverthe- 
less, by Jerom, to have been at the time of writing his 
seven books, a heathen, but to have had a dream 
which had awakened him, whilst a teacher of rhetoric 
at Sicca in Africa. That his former opposition to the 
Gospel prevented the confidence, necessary to a re- 
ception into the church, until his books evinced his sin- 
cerity. This representation is rendered probable by 
the occasional, but palpable proofs of defective reli- 
gious instruction, which occur in his books. Neverthe- 
less on several points, disputed in our day, he speaks 
with admirable clearness and precision."^ 

His seven books are in opposition unto those idola- 
tries of which he had been a zealous advocate. On 
the officers, and government of the church, nothing 
has occurred, and consequently, as in every other in- 
stance, not a word in support of lay presbyters. 

Lucius Ccelius Firmianus Lactantius is supposed to 
have received the. last name from his flowing style, and 
Firmianus from Fermurn in Italy. But he was a 
teacher of rhetoric in Africa, where he had been the 

1 "Trecenti sunt anni ferme, minus vel plus aliquid, ex quo 
coepimus esseChristiani." Arnob, lib. i. p. 5. 

m He calls original corruption, * 'vitium infirmitatis ingenitae." 
On the divinity of Christ, after having spoken of him as more 
powerful than the fates, he says, *'Deus ille sublimis fuit, Deus ra- 
dice ab intima, Deus ab incognitis regnis, et ab omnium principe, 
Deus sospitator est missus," &,c. He also discriminates with accu- 
racy between his divine and human natures. To the question why 
he took the form of a man? he asks in answer, *'an aliter potuit in- 
visibilis ilia vis — inferre et accommodare se mundo," &c. To the 
question, who was it that died? he answers, *'Homo, quern induerat, 
et secum ipse portabat — mors ilia, quam dicitis, assumpti hominis 
fuit, non ipsias; gestaminis non gestantis, &c. 



88 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C, 

pupil of Arnobius, from whence he was removed by 
Diocletian to Nicomedia in Bythinia, and afterwards 
into Gaul to be the instructor of Crispus, the son of 
Constantino. His writings have been placed between 
A. D. 302 and 320. His seven books of institutions ^ 
his book on the a?iger of God, and another on the work 
of God have survived unto our day. The book on the 
deaths of the persecutors is not in his style. It must 
nevertheless have been written by some person, soon 
after the Diocletian persecution. In one passage in 
Ch. XV. the writer says, "Comprehensi Presbyteri ac 
ministri, et sine ulla probatione ad confessionem dam- 
nati, cum omnibus suis deducebantur:" which Dr. Bur- 
net has rendered; "Some presbyters and deacons were 
seized on, and without any proof against them, they 
were condemned and executed." If the "cum omni- 
bus suis," be meant of the people whose worship they 
conducted, we have the primitive idea of a church; 
but howsoever understood, there is no evidence either 
of the exaltation, or prostration of the one original 
ordinary preaching office. The several poems attri- 
buted to Lactantius are unworthy of credit. His nu- 
merous doctrinal mistakes are of common observa- 
tion, and in some editions collected into one view. Not 
having been an ecclesiastic, his religion, like that of 
Justin, Tatian and Arnobius appears to have been his 
philosophy. Lactantius speaks with much commen- 
dation both of Tertullian and Cyprian, but has left, 
we believe, not a word of the clerical standing or 
grade of any one in the church.^ 

n Lactant. Institut. Lib. v. S. 1. 



SECTION X. 



Enselrius, his character, an Arian ; his object power. — In favor with Con- 
stantine. — His advantages, credulity, and cunning great. — Ecclesiastic 
authority having heen conferred upon the Christians by an establishment in 
his day, he aimed to conceal the truth of the former state of the church. — His 
history presents the poor and persecuted pastors of single churches in the 
dress of the bishops, whom Consiantine in the fourth century had elevated to 
rank and power. — Tlie permission of one church in a city, the position 
that the Holy Ghost was communicated only by the hands of the presiding 
presbyter, or bishop, required only increase of numbers to produce diocesan 
episcopacy, for which the church was ripe ai the council of Nice. 



EusEBius, distinguished by the additions Pamphilus, 
Csesariensis, and Palsestinus, received his Christian in- 
struction from Dorotheus, a presbyter of Antioch : 
his parentage is unknown. The intimate friend of 
Pamphilus, he taught in his school at Cesarea, af- 
ter whose martyrdom, A. D. 300, he assumed his 
name ; and, sometime prior to 320, became bishop of 
the church in that city. 

Not less a courtier than theologist, he gained and 
preserved the confidence of Constantino, and was 
honored with more than ordinary familiarity. To 
him was assigned the first seat at the emperor's right 
hand in the council of Nice, and to address him in 
their behalf.^ He was also appointed to dedicate 
Constantino's temple at Jerusalem ; and, at different 
times, to make two pubhc orations, at the palace at 
Constantinople. 

Jerom calls Eusebius a defender and standard 

a Some think Eustathius, and others that Alexander had this 
honor, but the omission of the name by Eusebius, (Life of Con- 
stantine, lib. iii. c. xi.) unless he had been the person had been 
inexcusable. 

i2 



90 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

bearer of the Arian faction.^ It was also the judg- 
ment of Photius*^ that he w^as an Arian blasphemer. 
He denominated Christ " a philosopher, and a truly 
pious man ;"^ often spoke of Christianity as a resto- 
ration of the ancient religion of nature, and a substitu- 
tion of moral virtues in the place of bloody sacrifices ; 
and always inveighed against the consubstantiality, 
ofioov6ia, of the Son as Sabellianism. If this were the 
only spot in his character, however fatal to himself, it 
would not prevent his competency as a witness ; but 
his disingenuousness, a trait of character appearing 
in his profession of religion, his doctrines, his conduct 
in the council of Nice, his treatment of the Athaha- 
sians, in his adulation of Constantino, and his repre- 
sentations of the sacred canon, must affect the credi- 
bility of the historical representations he has given of 
the church. His Christianity was philosophy, his piety 
prudence, and his highest zeal the estabhshment of the 
visible church. That he sacrificed to idols, and thus 
escaped martyrdom, was openly charged upon him, 
and believed. Such prudent poHcy restrained the 
violence of passion, and saved him from much open 
opposition. 

He wrote fifteen books of evangelical preparation, 
and twenty of evangelical demonstration ; of the lat- 
ter, the first ten only remain. Next followed his 
Chronicle, and then his Ecclesiastical History, in ten 
books. He also left four books of the life of Constan- 
tino ; a treatise against Hierocles, in defence of Chris- 
tianity ; five books against Marcellus ; a small gazet- 
teer of the Scriptures, in two books, but the last only 
survives ; an Oration in praise of Constantine ; com- 



b — impietatis Arii apertissimus propugnator. Vol. i. p. 483. 
Arianae — signifer factionis. Page 493. 

c Ev 7rox\otg ialiv olvtov iSnv tov viov ^Kctc-ifiiitAovvlA, Kcti cTsyrsgev 
apiov x-'XhovvTcL — Kcti uxKA TivA Apiicivtmig WiTimS' — Photii Biblioth. 
p. 12. 

d — ^ihoTot^o: a^dj KAi etx-iiQeag «y<r6/3»?. — Deiii. Evar.g. Lib. iii. 
p. 127, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 91 

mentaries on the Psalms and on Isaiah. His numerous 
other works have perished. 

It was in the hfe-time of Eusebius, and much owing 
to his influence, that the Christian church received the 
accession of worldly power, riches, and honor, tempt- 
ations of baleful influence. His advantages for writ- 
ing a history were great ; he mentions his access to 
the library collected by Pamphilus^ and to that also 
of Alexander at Jerusalem,*" but the intimate of Con- 
stantine might command w^hatever evidence the civil- 
ized world possessed. What he wrote of his own 
days, is more credible ; his account of the earlier ages 
of the church obviously bears, whether intentionally 
or not, a conformity to the then modern ideas of epis- 
copal domination. And so careful has he been to con- 
ceal the gradual progress of the jt^oEaloils^, presiding 
preshyters, into the parochial, diocesan, and metropoli- 
tan bishops, that Blondell was able to find in his 
works, but three passages, in which he could discover 
a hint of the ancient state of things ; and even those 
three have been written with so much caution, that 
they must be abandoned as doubtful proofs. His 
credulity in some things, forms so strange a contrast 
with his discernment and caution in others, that their 
consistency is an enigma, solvible only at the expense 
of his moral character. The success of a prayer of a 
deceased martyr, and her apparition to Basilicles ;5 the 
efficacy of the prayer of Narcissus, whereby water 
was turned to oil -^ and of a piece of sacramental 
bread, sent by a child to a dying man for the removal 
of his guilt,' appear to have been firmly believed by 
Eusebius. But how a rational believer, who prized 
the Christian religion only as a system of philosophy, 
could have been firmly persuaded of such incredible 
things, is a diflicult problem. 

When he denominates those by whom the first pro- 

e Eccles. Hist. Lib. vi. c. 8. f Ibid. Lib. vi. c. 22. 

g Lib. vi. c. 5. . t Ibid. c. 9. 

i Ibid. c. 44. 



92 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

mulgation of the gospel was effected, evangelists and 
apostles, sva/yysualoiv xao aTiosl u,'Kidv ^ he follows the Scrip- 
tures ; and when describing a period somewhat later, 
he substitutes pastors and evangelists, jtotfiivss xai, svay- 
y£%calac,^ he is still not censurable, if by 7Coi(a,£ve? he in- 
tended the bench of presbyters in every church ; but 
if by pastors, be meant the ?t^08 o7co7ff, presidents only 
of the respective congregations, he misrepresents the 
condition of the churches, at the period of which he 
there treats. And this sense is most probable, because 
he has used n^osaloilEs and noifisvEi as convertible terms."* 
It had been in the preceding ages accounted one cha- 
racteristic of the orthodoxy of a church, that it could 
show a line of presiding presbyters, or bishops, from 
the days of the apostles ; and we have seen, that 
Irenseus and others, have been careful to record their 
names ; Eusebius> from motives of another kind, not 
to be mistaken, has devoted a number of his chapters 
to the perpetuation of the successions in the original 
churches; and has noticed, with great emphasis, 
many individuals of different ages, in distinct chapters, 
the enumeration of whose names, with whatever he 
has said of them, might have been exhibited together, 
with far less labor, but not with equal pomp. His ef- 
forts have had their premeditated effect. He has 
clothed the early presiding bishops in the dress of 
bishops of the fourth century. His example has been 
followed. It has been asserted, " that it is as impossi- 
ble to doubt, whether there was a succession of bish- 
ops from the apostles, as it would be to call in ques- 
tion the succession of Roman emperors from Julius 
Caesar." This is true of the name, but a misi'epresen- 
tation of facts. The imperatores, among the Romans, 
when the word came first into use, differed not more 
in power and dignity from those emperors who after- 
wards governed the civilized world, than the bench of 
presbyters, or bishops, whom the apostles and evange- 

k Lib. ill. c. 3. ^ Lib. iii. c. 27. 

w Lib. viii. 2d. Suppt. c. 12. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 93 

lists placed in the respective churches, did from the 
lordly dignitaries, who have succeeded in later ages 
to the title of bishop. It is also as correct to apply 
the term emperor, in its modern sense, to every com- 
mander of an ancient Roman band, as it is to use the 
word bishop in its modern European meaning, to de- 
signate the early persecuted and humble followers of 
the fishermen of Galilee. In like manner to degrade 
the presbyters, w^ho were the highest kind of officers 
in every Christian church, by making a portion of them 
laymen, is as unscriptural an error, as the erection of 
the primus presbyter in every church, to be the lord 
of his brethren, whether in the character of a diocesan, 
metropolitan, patriarch, or pope. In the former three 
centuries, the influence and the power of these primi 
among the presbyters, vac hcn-o ooon gm-lnally in- 
creasing, until a parochial episcopacy became every- 
where estabhshed. But from the time of Constantine 
and Eusebius, when the church, becoming more cor- 
rupt, was visited with riches and honors, a diocesan, 
and, as the canons of the council of Nice discover, a 
metropolitan episcopacy prevailed. Bishops seem to 
have stepped up to a more elevated seat, and to have 
been accounted henceforth of a higher order. They 
were the political friends of Constantine, and treated 
by him w^ith discriminating attention. When he sent 
orders to Chrestus^ bishop of Syracuse, summoning 
him to a synod, he directed him to associate with him- 
self two of the second be?ich, at his own election ; and 
also to bring three servants, all at the public expense,". 
But although the degradation of presbyters, was the 
necessary consequence of such episcopal aggrandize- 
ment ; yet w^ere they, in no instance, merely ac- 
counted laymen. Amongst the numerous martyrdoms 
recorded in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, 
not a single person is mentioned, who sustained 
the office of lay presbyter. We have seen in the 

n cTuo yt riVAs toiv m tsu Sivngiv ^^ovov KAt r^its ttaiSaZ) &C. 
Lib, X. c. 5. 



94 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

works of Cyprian, the commencement of episcopal in- 
fluence and rivalship ; this appears to have advanced 
until, by the righteous judgments of God, the Diocle- 
sian persecution fell upon the Christian church." But 
in the glov^ing description of this visitation, given by 
Eusebius, it w^as by no means his design to inveigh 
against the hierarchy ; rather artfully he points the 
judgments of heaven against those who should resist 
usurpation. So remote v^ere his desires from lessen- 
ing his ovi^n office, that he approved the sentiment, 
that the Holy Ghost v^as communicated by the hands 
of the bishop,P than v^hich, no doctrine could have 
been more conducive to that sacred veneration w^hich 
has been the basis of ecclesiastical domination with 
the credulous. This error, coming in aid of a propo- 
sition generally tidopied, ttiat ttierc must be but one 
Christiaji, society in each city, would require only a 
large accession of converts, to insure the erection of 
diocesan episcopacy in any place. Dionysius, bishop 
of Alexandria, prior to A. D. 270, says in Eusebius, 
that there were in the remote suburbs, places denomi- 
nated synagogues, in w^hich a portion of the congre- 
gation assembled for worship.*i Athanasius, who 
was bishop of Alexandria in the life of Eusebius, shows 
that in his time there were different Christian assem- 
blies there, and that they were all collected in one, 
only in Easter. But although, from the co-operation 
of these causes, there were in Rome, one bishop, forty- 
four presbyters, seven deacons, and as many sub-dea- 
cons, forty-two acolyths, and fifty-two exorcists door- 
keepers, and readers, we find no lay-presbyter. Sub- 
deacons there were, but no sub-presbyters. The cor- 
rect principle, that there could be but one Ttposafa?, 
presiding presbyter in a church, produced parochial ; 
and when associated with the unauthorized rule, that 

o Lib. viii. c. 1. 

P Lib. vi. c. 43. Todli a-<pgiiycrQ)ivxt vtto nrov tTrtotoTrcv — /u)» 
Iv^ceVi Veeg etvlov o-yiov 7rviii/uoi]oc slu^i. 

q — IV TTpccta-litots TT^ooligoo Kiif^iVotSi Kctlo. ^tgoj — o-vYcLyayxt.-^ 
Lib. vU. c, 23. 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 95 

one church only could exist in one city, produced also 
diocesan episcopacy. But how lay presbyters came 
in, it will be soon enough to inquire, when they have 
found their w^ay into the church. Come when they 
may, their introduction will be an innovation, equally 
unauthorized by the word of God, and at variance 
with the history of the church, during the three cen- 
turies which have already passed under our inspec- 
tion. 

Eusebius relates, with much improbability, that 
" after the martyrdom of James, and the immediately 
consequent destruction of Jerusalem, it is reported, 
that the apostles and disciples of the I^ord who were 
still left alive, came together from every place, with 
the relations of the Lord, according to the flesh, of 
whom many then survived. That they all held a 
council, and with one consent judged Simeon, the son 
of Cleopas, of whom mention is made in the gospel, to 
be worthy of the throne, e^wov altov."^ The apostolic 
commission had no other limits, than the world ; and 
the evangelists w^ere also general officers, ordained to 
go from place to place, and country to country, to 
erect new churches, or set in order those which had 
been planted. 

The government of particular societies was com- 
mitted to presbyters, who were generally men of ordi- 
nary gifts and talents. In the distribution of the fields 
of labor among the apostles, James the Just, if he was 
an apostle, remained, because of the importance of the 
station whence the gospel had proceeded, and where 
its chief proofs still existed, among the Christians at 
Jerusalem, and in Judea, by a common consent. But 
in the age of Eusebius, the presiding presbyters, hav- 
ing monopolized the name bishop, and changed its 
meaning from the oversight of the church, to that of 
the original bishops themselves, claimed to be sole 
successors to the offices and honors of the apostles ; or 
rather, according to the representation of Eusebius in 

r Lib.iii. c. 11. 



96 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the case of James, the bishop's throne was an honor 
above that of the apostleship. To the first seat in the 
presbytery of the respective churches, the succession 
was not yet reduced to uniformity : in some it was 
according to seniority among the presbyters; in 
others the successor was elected by and out of the 
members of the bench, as at Alexandria in Egypt : in 
others, he was commissioned over their heads, with- 
out or even against the voice of the majority of the 
presbyters ; as in the case of Cyprian at Carthage : 
and sometimes superstition, as in the choice of Fabi- 
anus,* decided the question. But upon the death of 
James, the choice of a successor is reported to have 
been deemed sufficiently important to authorize a call 
of the surviving apostles from the different nations, 
wherever dispersed. Nevertheless the same thing 
might have been effected as vvell by an evangehst, or 
by the presbyters of that particular church, no imposi- 
tion of hands being then necessary to constitute a 
rt^osalco^, presiding presbyter. That the blood relatives 
of the Saviour should have been convened, as though 
by their relationship they had authority or grace 
which might aid the consecration, is just as credible 
as the rest of the story, which had rested upon mere 
report, if it had any existence for two centuries, and 
as such is given by the credulous historian. 

The circular, by which the synod of Antioch pro- 
mulgated their excommunication of Paul of Samosata, 
has, been preserved by Eusebius. After specifying 
sixteen by name, it proceeds, " and all the rest present, 
who live in the adjacent cities and countries, the bish- 
ops, and presbyters, and deacons, and the churches of 
God to our beloved brethren in the Lord greeting."^ 
An evil had arisen beyond the control of a single 
church : its repression was important. The apostle 
and evangehsts being long before removed by death, 
and the presiding presbyter having assumed powers 

s Lib.vi. c. 29, 

t Lib. vii. c. 30. — Ecr/o-xocrsx ncti Tr^io-^uli^ot Kctt StxitoToif kxi 

dl IKKKiO-iCtt TOW QiOV, &C. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 97 

beyond the restraint of his co-presbyters, a necessity 
was created that the neighboring Christians, both 
clergy and people, should concur in correcting the 
evil. Had lay-presbyters existed, they must have 
been here included. If supposed either in the v^ord 
presbyters or churches, the hypothesis must extend to 
every church ; and a class of such officers existed in 
every Christian assembly, yet never discriminated in 
any enumeration, or by any occurrence, or circum- 
stance, recorded by any writer, orthodox or heretical, 
during the first three hundred years of the church. 
The ruling presbyter, Tt^osalus,^ we have had in full de- 
tail. He was the primus presbyter on every bench, 
equal in commission, but presiding in duty; his accu- 
mulated power and dignity, before the days of Euse- 
bius, had come to be distinguished by the name bish- 
op. The " helps and governments'"" have been erro- 
neously represented as " those who rule well, but do 
not labor in word and doctrine." If these mute of- 
ficers had been found in every church, we should have 
heard of them. The man who can suppose, that such 
an office could have existed in the societies in the 
days of the apostles, and no trace of it have remained 
afterwards; or that such officers could have been 
continued in the churches, but have escaped so much 
as a whisper in all the divisions and agitations, in all 
the lists of martyrs and councils, and every mention 
among the friends and enemies of the church, for thre^ 
hundred years, has a mind capable of any extrava- 
gance of credulity. He can adopt an erroneous and 
imaginary meaning of Scripture, and afterwards ad- 
here to it, not only without, but in opposition to, all 
evidence. 

A charge, severe but probable, has been brought 
against Eusebius, of suppressing certain passages, par- 
ticularly 1 John V. 7, from his edition of the New Tes- 
tament. He was commanded by Constantino to cause 

^ 1 Tim. V. 17. Rom. xii. 7, 8. 
T 1 Cor. xii. 28. 

K 



98 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C, 

fifty copies of the Scriptures, legible and fit for use, to 
be written on prepared parchment, by skilful artists, 
and to send them to Constantinople by tw^o public 
coaches, under the care of some deacon of his 
church.'^ These copies, having the influence of Con- 
stantino, must have been received by the churches, for 
whom they were provided by the emperor, with vene- 
ration. That in these copies Eusebius suppressed cer- 
tain passages tending to establish the consubstantiali- 
ty of the Father and the Son, particularly 1 John v. 
7, has been lately alleged, and too well supported. He 
excepted against the doctrine of those texts, in the 
council of Nice, but escaped censure by covering 'his 
regard for Arianism under the pretence of a fear of 
the heresy of Sabellius. In a letter to his charge, he 
defends his inconsistency, by softening the language of 
the creed he had reluctantly signed. The disposition 
of the man, his opposition to the doctrines, the empe- 
ror's coincidence with him in sentiments, the opportu- 
nity afforded him by Constantino, the complexion of 
the' Greek copies generally, over which his edition 
must have had a decisive influence ; and, on the con- 
trary, the support which the text receives from Latin 
copies and writers, Tertullian, Cyprian, Facundus, 
Vigilius, and others, all conspire with the certainty of 
his having omitted a portion of Mark's gospel, to at- 
tach the blame of the defective copies to his disingen- 
aousness. 

w De vit, Constant. Lib. iv. c. 36. 



SECTION XL 

The council at Jerusalem was extraordinary. — Councils may he traced to the 
commencement of the third century. — TJiey were at first advisory, not appel- 
lative, much less legislative. — They strengthened clerical power. — The coun- 
cil of Carthage, A. D. 258.— The two councils of Aniioch, A. D. 264, 270. 
The council of Ehleris, A. D. 305.— The council of Aries, A. D. 309.— 
The synod of Ancyra, A. D. 3U.—T7ie synod of Pontus, A. D. 314.— 
The general council of Nice, A. D. 325. — The general council of Constan- 
tinople, A. D. 331. — The general council of Ephesus, A. D- 431 — The 
general council at Chalcedon, A. D. 451. — The second general council at 
Constantinople, A. D. 553. — The third general council at Constanti- 
nople, A. D. 680.— Another, A. D. 692.— The seventh GEcumeni- 
cal council was at Constantinople, A. D. 754. — Another seventh at Nice, 
A. D. 787. — This was after the commencement of the empire of Charle- 
magne, the erection of a monarchy in England, and the civil power of the 
pope. — None of these councils were founded upon the consent of the Chris- 
tian church, or upon any spiritual authority ; often established error, and 
<reate no obligation upon the Christian world. 

The records of the early synods and councils of the 
Christian church, so far as genuine, are credible evi- 
dence of facts, and competent, to some extent, to show 
the condition of the church at different periods. Ec- 
clesiastical associations have never possessed the 
rightful powder of legislation in the church of Christ; 
but as every man is bound to believe for himself, so 
every Christian denomination has a right to adopt 
their own form of church government, and every 
member equal liberty to dissent and withdraw. The 
voluntary conventions of synods and councils are 
justifiable, at least when merely deliberative. The 
conduct of Paul and Barnabas, in waving the rite of 
circumcision with respect to Gentile converts, having 
been censured at Antioch, by persons who had come 
from Jerusalem, was submitted unto, and confirmed 
by the opinions of Peter, James, and perhaps John, and 



100 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the presbyters and church at Jerusalem. But the 
question was proposed in the abstract form, and the 
advice w^as founded upon the antecedent decisive tes- 
timony of the Holy Spirit. This appeal ought, there^ 
fore, to have remained, after inspiration ceased, an 
isolated case, nor was it followed for a long series of 
years. 

We learn from Tertullian, in the third century, that 
" councils were collected in certain places throughout 
the Greek cities, from all the churches, by which the 
higher matters were managed in common, and the 
representation itself of the whole Christian persuasion, 
was regarded with high respect."* Because, when 
synods were introduced, the churches were represent- 
ed by delegates, and this was among the Greeks only^ 
it has been conjectured that they took the idea from 
their own civil forms. Tfie practice was certainly 
founded on common consent, since they were neither 
at first of appellative jurisdiction, nor founded on 
Scriptural authority. The numerous Greeks then in 
lesser Asia, were probably included in the term "joer 
GrcBcias." Consultations concerning Easter were 
held in Palestine, Pontus, Rome, and France, in the 
days of Polycrates and Victor, about the commence- 
ment of the third century.^ Cyprian did not neglect 
to avail himself of means, so well adapted to enhance 
clerical influence and power, to which he was so 
much inclined. In Africa, therefore, they soon be- 
came frequent ; and their members gradually losing 
sight of the representation of their churches, consider- 
ed themselves as acting by virtue of their offices. 
And as the presiding presbyters had become bish- 

a Tertul. adversus Psychicos. c. 13. Whether he speaks only 
of the Montanists, or of those consultations of the orthodox in Asia 
Minor, against Montanus, cited by Eusebius, from ApoUinarius, 
Lib. V. c. 15, let the reader decide. " Aguntur prseterea per Grse- 
cias, ilia certis in locis concilia ex universis ecclesiis, per qux et 
altioria quseque in commune tractantur et ipsa representatio totius 
nominis Christiani magna veneratione celebratur." 
b Vide Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Lib. v. c. 23, 24, 23. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 101 

ops of the bishops, who constituted the presby- 
teries of the respective congregations, so the me- 
tropoUtans soon presided in the provincial synods, 
and afterwards patriarchs in general councils. That 
of Carthage in the reign of Decius was conven- 
ed by Cyprian, A. D. 258, to consult of the pro- 
priety of re-baptizing those who had been baptiz- 
ed by heretics. There were eighty-four members, 
who all gave their own, and sometimes also the votes 
of others, as proxies, and the details evince, that they 
were considered the representatives of particular 
churches there named. Cyprian, when opening the 
business, described the assembly as deliberative only, 
and not as designed to pass a censure upon any indi- 
vidual. The fifth speaker observed, that all who came 
to his church from heretics he baptized, " and those 
from their clergy he placed among the laity.'"^ It has 
appeared from the works of Cyprian, that episcopacy 
was then parochial ; consequently the presbyters of a 
single church must have been the clergy here named. 
No other reference to presbyters is found in the record 
of this council. The councils held at Antioch, A. D. 
264 and 270, against Paul of Samosata, excited great 
interest among Christians. They were not obstructed 
by the civil power : on the contrary, appHcation was 
made to the emperor Aurehan, though a Pagan, to 
effectuate their final decision by ejecting Paul from 
the church. This appeal of a Christian synod to the 
civil authority, was unscriptural, unprecedented, and 
of mischievous tendency. 

The council of Eliberis in Spain, about A. D. 305, 
and that of Aries in France, A. D. 309, both recognize 
the subordination of deacons to presbyters, and of 
each to their bishop, who was evidently parochial. 

The synod of Ancyra, in Galatia, met A. D. 314, to 
establish rules of disciphne concerning the reception 
of those who, in time of persecution, had abandoned 
the cause. The first canon re-admitted such presby- 

c- Ka; lovs etTTo Kkngou AvloDV Kauove £(r7;;!r«t.— -Zonaras, p. 276. 
k2 



102 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ters unto the honor of their bench, Itfitji tr^ xala xaOsS^av 
(Aslsxew, but denies them the privilege of serving. By 
the second, deacons so offending are in Hke manner to 
be received to the other honor, but not again to ad- 
minister the bread or the cup, or to preach, a^Iov v^ 
Ttolt^^tov, ava ^£^£iv^ ^ xi^^vdasiv. If the dcacons in the 
churches of Asia Minor served the sacramental tables, 
preached and held the other honor, l^v ax-Kviv Icfit^v sx^^v^ 
certainly the presbyters were not laymen ; nor do 
such appear in the other canons of this synod. By 
the thirteenth canon, it is made unlaw^ful for coun- 
try bishops (chorepiscopi, sjtKjxojtoc xaja ;i;w^aj) to or- 
dain presbyters and deacons, and also city presbyters 
vi^ithout the consent of the bishop in the other parish.'* 
The chorepiscopi presided over congregations in vil- 
lages, and the design of this canon was to monopohze 
power and influence in city bishops, by prohibiting or- 
dinations by the chorepiscopi. If they were bishops by 
a secondary or canonical ordination, this canon was 
in furtherance of the same design, the accumulation of 
power, and of no higher authority, that is, merely 
void. If they had been ordained as presbyters only, 
this canon is a recognition of their right to ordain 
presbyters and deacons, at the period of this synod. 

The synod of Neocsesarea in Pontus,was A. D. 314, 
and also prior to the council of Nice. By the first 
canon, presbyters are forbidden to marry upon pain 
of deposition, which is conclusive proof that they were 
not laymen. By the eleventh canon it is decreed, that 
no presbyter shall be ordained under thirty years ; 
and the reason assigned is, that Christ was baptized 
and began to teach in his thirtieth year. The thir- 
teenth prohibits country presbyters from offering in 
the presence of the bishop and presbyters of a city, 
but if they he absent, (tav 8s amriai) and he alone should 
be called to prayer, he may administer the bread and 

aWet fxuSs TT^ia/ivligov; (lUondell su[)posed Trgta-Bvh^otc) TroXtat 
;^aig;f lou iTrir^itTnivctt Ctto lev innKOTrov /lAtlu. ')^af/ufA.a.1ciY iv tlt^x 
tn^oiKia.. — Zonai-as, p. 295, 



or CHRISTIAN CHXJRCHES. 103 

cup ; by which it is evident that the country presby- 
ters were, when alone, to break the bread, and to bless 
the cup. The fourteenth canon declares the chorepis- 
copi to be, xala. IvTiov, after the example of the seventy 
disciples, and consequently that they were not succes- 
sors to the twelve apostles. The fifteenth declares, 
that there ought to be no more than seven deacons, 
even in a great city. In the councils prior to those 
denominated oecumenical, no mention has been made 
of any elders, but those who preached and adminis- 
tered ordinances ; the fathers and the synods thus 
agreeing, all probability of their existence hitherto is 
thus evidently excluded. 

There were no general councils until the emperors 
became Christians. Constantino set the example, and 
without invading the peculiar province of an ecclesi- 
astic, presided in the council of Nice, and probably 
prevented much discord. In the character of a civil 
governor, it belonged to him to preserve the peace of 
his subjects. To call the council, he had no ecclesi- 
astical authority. The fact, that the kings of Israel 
gathered the people on several occasions, was no jus- 
tification. They governed under a theocracy, and 
were to execute, not to make laws : they were also 
commissioned, being the anointed of the Lord. When 
Christianity arose, though in, it was not of, the world, 
and was established upon principles wholly distinct 
from those of civil government. Its subjects were en- 
joined submission to the laws of the country wherever 
they might be, if not inconsistent with the divine law. 
Valentinian refused to call a general council, and as- 
signed as a reason, at least ostensive, that being a lay- 
man, he had no right. The councils of Carthage, 
Antioch, Ancyra, and Neocsesarea in Pontus, were 
prior to any of those termed oecumenical. That at 
Nice, A. D. 325, was the first so denominated.^ The 
professed object was the defence of the divinity of the 

e OiKivfjLivn signified the habitable world, but was used for the 
extent of the Roman empire ; from hence, otnovf-nvoiy cecumenical, 
when applied to a council, imported, that it was convened from the 



104 THE PRIMITIVE GOVEENMENT 

Son of God, against the heresy of Arius, a presbyter 
of Alexandria, whose chief opponent was Athanasius, 
a deacon of the same church. The second canon re- 
cites, that some who had been Gentiles, as soon as 
baptized, pass into the office of bishop or presbyter, 

scat a/xa 'r'9 ^arcl vGd'/jvac 7t^o6ay£iv si? STitsxoTtTjv, vj S15 Tt^sd^v- 

Is^Lov, which is forbidden, until they shall have ^iven 
proof of their change. This accords with the antece- 
dent practice of the churches, in showing, that at the 
period of this council, the ordination of a bishop was 
sometimes still the first, and only ordination of him 
who received the office. The fourth canon gives the 
right of election and ordination of a bishop, to all those 
of the same province ; but subject to the authority of 
the Metropolitan. As the bishops in the provinces 
were parochial, or merely pastors, and without any 
previous ordination as presbyters, the office having 
been the same, these ordinations, though denom- 
inated episcopal, were therefore still, in fact, by 
presbyters, and consequently equally without Scrip- 
tural authority, and episcopal succession, in the 
modern sense of the terms ; and although by the 
presiding presbyters, 7ie,osalc{lii^ who had long before 
monopolized the name bishop, their office was no 
more than that of presbyters. The fifth directs two 
synodical m.eetings of all the bishops in a province, 
annually, to judge in cases heretofore within the cog- 
nizance of tjfie presbytery of each church. This re- 
moved the responsibility of presiding presbyters or 
bishops from, their own co-presbyters, w^ho were not 
to sit in the new provincial synods. This innovation 
was the more strange, because presbyters and dea- 
cons constituted some of the most active members of 
this council of Nice. The sixth canon makes the con- 
sent of the bishops of Alexandria necessary to the 
election of all bishops in Egypt, Lybia, and Pentapolis 
in Africa ; and also of the bishops of Rome, of An- 

civilized world. But the g-ospel had extended beyond the limits of 
the empire, and the whole church never acted in any one council. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 105 

tioch, and of other provinces, as far as had been usual 
The seventh canon secures the same undefined pre- 
rogative to the bishop of Mlm CapitoHna. With this 
council commenced the combination of civil and ec- 
clesiastical authority ; force being substituted for the 
conviction of truth. 

The second was at Constantinople, A. D. 381, in 
the reign of Theodosius the Great, for the correction 
of the errors of Macedonius, who denied the divinity 
of the Holy Spirit. The second canon confines bish- 
ops to their own dioceses, and declares that the eccle- 
siastical government of each province shall be admin- 
istered by its own synod. 

The third was convened at Ephesus, A. D. 431, by 
Theodosius the Younger, emperor of the East, and 
condemned the heresy of Nestorius, who accounted 
the Son of God and Christ two persons, and denied that 
the Virgin was the mother of God. In the canons of this 
council, the terms " bishops, clergy, and laity," often 
occur, the word clergy including unquestionably the 
presbyters and deacons. Charisius alone is named in 
these a presbyter ; he was a heretic, whose writings 
were condemned by the synod. 

The fourth met at Chalcedoh, under the emperor 
Marcianus, A. D. 451, and anathematized Eutyches 
and Dioscorus, who held that Christ was to be wor- 
shiped as God and as man ; and in both natures as 
one nature. This council recognized the repeal of the 
second council of Ephesus by the bishop of Rome, 
which had established the Eutychian error. The 
second canon expressly describes bishops, chorepis- 
copi, presbyters and deacons as clergy. 

The fifth was held at Constantinople, in the reign of 
Justinian the First, A. D. 553. Its efforts were directed 
against the Nestorian errors which had been taught by 
Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus ; the 
opinion that the soul exists before the body, and some 
ancient doctrines of Origen and others. 

The sixth convened at Constantinople, A. D. 680, 
under Constantine the Fourth, called Pogonatus, the 



106 PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

father of Justinian, against the Monothehtes. This 
council held, that Christ had one person, but two na- 
tures, neither of which was destitute of its own will 
and works. 

Another council, holden in 692, in the tower of the 
palace, by Justinian the Second, is also called the sixth, 
because the former, like the fifth, enacted no canons. 
Of this there remain an hundred and two. The can- 
ons of this council abound with proofs that presbyters 
were of the clergy ; the reader will find these in can- 
ons 3, 6, 13, 14, 32, 58, and others. 

The seventh oecumenical council was held at 
Constantinople, in the year 754, under the reign 
of Constantino, called Copronymus, the father of 
Leo the Fourth, and condemned the use of images 
in worship. This council is denominated oecu- 
menical by the Greek church, but is rejected by 
the Latin. Upon the death of the emperor Leo, his 
son Constantine being a youth, his mother Irene who 
reigned in his behalf, held a council, also accounted 
the seventh, at Nice, A. D. 787, in defence of the wor- 
ship of images, against the iconoclasts. The records' 
of these furious zealots are preserved with great par- 
ticularity, together with their unanimous anathema of 
all those who will not kiss the images.^ 

At the period of the council last mentioned, Charles 
the Great possessed Burgundy, France, Germany, 
and Italy, and was about to re-establish the empire of 
the West, which had been overrun and divided in the 
beginning of the fifth century. A little before the time 
of this council also, the pope had received the civil 
exarchate of Ravenna, the commencement of his tem- 
poral power; and a general monarchy had been 
erected in England. 

These councils, in no instance, were founded on the 
consent of the whole church. Even had they been, 
they could thereby have derived no power to legislate 
for Christ, to erect or legitimate the hierarchy, which 

f E/xojrac cta-TTA^ofAt^A, fAtt ovTu; e^j^oYTAt etroiQffxcc nrleta-sty. 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 107 

was the principal object of their care. The pretence 
that they were under spiritual guidance is absurd, for 
council decided against council, and often against the 
word of God. Their decisions were by majorities, 
who repeatedly silenced the truth merely by numbers, 
and generally persecuted those who were in the mi- 
nority. Augustine gave it as his opinion, that the 
truth was to be investigated without regard to the 
decrees of councils ; and Gregory Nazianzan declared 
that he never had observed good to result from any 
council. What he had not, others may have seen. 
Councils composed of holy men, with a view delibe- 
rately to investigate the meaning of revelation, and 
to advise, have, especially in times of great declension, 
done much good. Nevertheless their articles, creeds, 
and confessions, however excellent, are uncommanded, 
merely human, and destitute of authority. 



SECTION XII. 

The canons of the council of Nice established diocesan episcopacy, for which 
various causes had paved the way. — Yet parochial episcopacy was not wholly 
banished in the fourth century. — Hilary of Poictiers ; his writings. — Hilary, 
a deacon of Rome ; his commentary among the works of Ambrose, and his 
questions in the Aih tome of Augustine. — He says, Presbyters were at first 
called Bishops, and still performed the same duties in their absence. — And 
proves, in the middle of the fourth century, that the ordination and office of 
a Bishop and Presbyter were the same. — He agrees with antecedent proofs 
that the priority of the Bishop or first Presbyter, was merely adventitious, 
and no diversity in office until made so by canons. 

The removal of parochial authority by the intro- 
duction of councils, paved the v^ay for, and became 
the engine of, the establishment of diocesan episcopa- 
cy. Power being aggregated from the individual 
churches into synods and councils, there remained to 
be effected for the hierarchy, the exclusion of presby- 
ters from synods and councils, and the appointment of 
bishops by bishops, both of which were secured by the 
canons of the council of Nice. But although a supe- 
rior order was by these means prepared for diocesan 
government, it did not universally supersede parochial, 
during the fourth century. 

The gradual advances towards episcopal domina- 
tion and patriarchal pre-eminence, by the monopoly 
of the name bishop, by the necessity of his concur- 
rence, by the computation of successions, by the 
claims of ecclesiastical legislation and appellatory ju- 
risdiction, by the exclusive but unsupported claim of 
episcopal ordination, by the exclusion of presbyters 
from councils, all of which have passed successively 
under our view ; and, also, by the erection of diocesan 
instead of parochial government, which, in the middle 
of the fourth century, our present place, is still incom- 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &LC, 109 

plete, are obvious to every unprejudiced reader of the 
fathers. Nevertheless, presbyters have not been de- 
graded from their principal employments, the preach- 
ing of the gospel and the administration of the bap- 
tismal and eucharistical ordinances, even among Epis- 
copaHans. To rescue Presbyterians from such an 
imputation, to which some are v^ilhng to succumb, is 
the object of these efforts. At a late period, upon 
which the finger shall be placed, as soon as it arrives, 
ruling elders, so denominated from a mistaken sense of 
the words Ttpos^tcotsi 7tpecsl5vttpoi, presidi?7g presbyters, were 
most unwarrantably intruded into the original stand- 
ing of deacons, w^ho were thereby driven from their 
office. This was not a degradation of presbyters, but 
an encroachment of mere laymen, and equally repre- 
hensible, who have no title to the name presbyter, nor 
to the employment assigned by the Holy Spirit to 
deacons. On a full understanding of this faulty cleri- 
cal contrivance, a great portion of the American pas- 
tors ordain and consider only as deacons, those who 
are denominated ruling elders ; and they are autho- 
rized to do so by their form of government. 

The author who next succeeds is Hilary of Poic- 
tiers, who was born in Gaul near the end of the third 
century, and educated a heathen, but afterwards con- 
vinced, instructed, and baptized. When bishop of 
Pictavium, he WTOte Tractates on the Psalms, and a 
commentary on the gospel of Matthew. 

On Psalm cxxxiv. 27,^ he observes, that the Psalm- 
ist means different things by the house of Israel, Aa- 
ron, Levi, and those who fear the Lord : and that, in 
like manner, Paul writing to the Corinthians distin- 
guishes between the called, the saints, and those who 
call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. By Aa- 
ron, he understands the priests — " in Aaron, sacerdotes 
significari ;" for he was first of the order under the 
law : by Levi, the deacons — " in Levi autem ministros 
ostendi ;" for this tribe was chosen to attend. But the 

a Hilar. Pict. Opera, vol. i. p. 413. 



110 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

rest of the people, to whom the duty neither of the 
priesthood, nor attendance, but of fear, "cwt non 
sacerdotii, neque ministerii sed timoris officiura,^^ belonged, 
are designated by those " who fear the Lord." Hilary, 
who was himself a bishop, and knew the novel claims 
of such to a superiority over their presbyters, does 
very plainly in this passage, pass over the distinction, 
and account them as the same order of " sacer dotes, ^'' 
priests, recognizing only two kinds of officers, sacer- 
dotes and ministrij presbyters and deacons. He conse- 
quently thereby excludes lay presbyters. The sacer- 
dotal order of the Old Testament vanished with that 
shadowy dispensation, and no other priest exists but 
Jesus Christ, who has passed into the heavens. 

Hilary wrote also twelve books against the Arians, 
and was banished to Phrygia by the emperor Con- 
stantius, because he defended Athanasius. In Asia he 
wrote his Treatise of Synods, about A. D. 359. It is 
directed to his fellow bishops, coepiscopis,^ in Germany, 
Belgium, &c. to the people, ^^plebibus^^ of the province 
of Narbona ; to the clergy, " clericis,^^ of Toulouse ; 
and to the bishops, " Episcopis,''^ of the provinces of 
Britain. Lay elders are not found in the enumeration, 
nor in his works, this imaginary grade not having, in 
the age of Hilary, found an entrance into the church. 

Constantius followed his father's partialities for the 
Eusebian faction, and was more decisive in his pre- 
ferences. Hilary, exasperated by persecution, against 
which his writings often inveigh, addressed the empe- 
ror in several books, which assume the style and form 
of letters, in language often excessively severe. In 
the second he observes : " I am a bishop in connexion 
with the Gallic churches and bishops, although re- 
maining in exile, and to the present time dispensing 
communion to the church by my presbyters."*^ These 

b Hil. PIct. vol. ii. p. 358. 

c •* Episcopus eg-o sum in omnium Gallicarum ecclesiarum atque 
episcoporum communione, licet in exilio permanens, et ecclesiae 
adhuc per presbyteros meos communionem distribuens." Page 
431. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. Ill 

appear consequently to have been separate churches, 
or single parishes, and his charge was probably of the 
same kind, in which there were presbyters who sup- 
plied his place. These must have administered ordi- 
nances as well as preached the gospel, and conse- 
quently were not laymen. 

He was sent back to Gaul in 860, and died in 367. 

There is a commentary on the epistles of Paul 
found at present among the works of Ambrose, which 
Augustine has quoted as the production of Hilary, 
who could have been no other than he who was a 
deacon of the church of Rome and a native of Sardi- 
nia. The writer of this commentary must also have 
written the questions on the Old and New Testaments, 
attributed to him, and now appearing in the fourth 
tome of the works of Augustine. But whether he was 
the author or not, the works place themselves at 300 
years from the destruction of Jerusalem, discover 
unusual proofs of a strong and well-instructed mind, 
and are entitled to speak for themselves. If they have 
partaken in the advantages of the canonizations of 
Ambrose and Augustine, the honor of infallibility 
should prevent their condemnation with Hilary ; who 
though denominated by Jerome a Deucalion, because 
a rebaptizer, did hold his very opinions on the subject 
before us. It is too late to subject to expurgation 
works which have been received by the Christian 
world from the reign of Valentinian the First. Also, 
the piety and sufferings of Hilary for the cause of 
Christ are abundantly proved by Athanasius.*^ On 
Ephesians, iv. 11, 12, among other things, he observes: 
" For also Timothy, who had been created by him- 
self {Paul) a presbyter, he denominates a bishop, be- 
cause presbyters were at first called bishops, seeing 
that one receding, the next might succeed to his 
place. Finally, in Egypt, presbyters confirm,^ if a 

d Athanasii, Oper. vol, i. p. 647. 

e Whether the term corwi^gTian/ expressed the confirmation of the 
baptized, or the imposition of hands on those who were ordained, 
or on penitents, it was correctly accomplished by the presbyter in 



113 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

bishop be not present. But because the presbyters 
who came afterv^^ards, began to be found unworthy 
to hold the highest office, the custom was changed, a 
council "providing that not succession, but merit, 
should create a bishop, constituted by the judgment of 
many presbyters, lest an unworthy person should 
rashly intrude, and become an offence to many."^ 
Hilary thought Timothy to have been by his ordina- 
tion a presbyter, and also by the same ordination a 
bishop, because presbyters were so denominated in 
the days of the apostle. Moreover, he asserts, that 
presbyters presided successively, by which he means 
that they came to be primi, or bishops, in a more 
modern sense of the word, according to seniority in 
ordination, until by a canon of council, it was decreed, 
that the successor should be appointed according to 
merit. If presbyters were at the first bishops, and 
were the highest ordinary officers in the church, it is 
unnecessary to allege, that they were not laymen. 
But when this writer comes to speak of Timothy's 
power to ordain bishops, he expresses his views more 
clearly. On 1 Tim. iii. he observes, that the apostle, 
" after the bishop, subjoins the ordination of the dea- 
con ; why ? unless the ordination of the bishop and of 
the presbyter is one, for each of them is a priest. But 
the bishop is first, seeing every bishop is a presbyter, 
not every presbyter a bishop ; for he is a bishop, who 
is first among the presbyters. Finally, he represents 
Timothy to have been ordained a presbyter, but be- 

the absence of the bishop, whose preference was founded only on 
custom and canons; but these could not have leg-alized such act of 
a presbyter, had his authority not been apostolical. 

f Ambros. Oper. torn. iii. p. 239. "Nam et Timotheum pres- 
byterum a se creatum episcopum vocat, quia primum presbyteri 
episcopi appellabantur: ut recedente uno, sequens ei succederet. 
Denique apud iEgyptum presbyteri consig-nant, si prsesens non 
sit episcopus. Sed quia coeperunt sequentes presbyteri indigni 
inveniri ad primatus teilendos; immutata est ratio, prospiciente 
Concilio, ut non ordo sed meritum crearet episcopum, multorum 
sacerdotum judicio constitutum, ne indignus temere usurparet, et 
esse multis scandalum." 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 113 

cause he had not another before him, he was a bishop. 
Whence also he shows, that he may, after the hke 
manner, ordain a bishop. For it was neither right 
nor lawful, that an inferior should ordain a superior, 
for no one confers what he has not received."^ After 
a few sentences, he adds : — " But there ought to be 
seven deacons and some presbyters, that there may be 
two in every church, and one bishop in a city."*^l 
Writing in the middle of the fourth century, this last 
sentence accords with the circumstances of his day, 
and discovers his own acquiescence in the authority 
of the church. Nevertheless, he shows his clear dis- 
cernment of ancient facts, when he affirms, that there 
was but one ordination for the bishop and the presby- 
ter, and their office the same. The presiding presby- 
ter we have seen, came afterwards to be distinguished 
by the title of bishop, a name common at first to all 
presbyters. After this, it was correct to say, every 
bishop was a presbyter, but not every presbyter a 
bishop, because the presiding presbyter only, in every 
presbytery, was so denominated. Thus he accounts 
Timothy, who had been ordained, as he thinks, no 
more than a presbyter, to have been a bishop, because 
there was no presbyter to preside over him. The 
word primus, where it first occurs in this quotation, 
has been supposed to agree with sacerdos ;^ but that 
it governs presbyterorum understood, ana takes its gen- 
der, is evident from his own explanation : " hie enim 

e Ambros. Oper. torn. iii. p. 272. Post episcopum tamen dla- 
coni ordinationem subjecit. Quare? nisi quia episcopi et presby- 
teri una ordinatio est, uterque enim sacerdos est. Sed episcopus 
primus est, ut omnis episcopus presbyter sit, non omnis presbyter 
episcopus. Hie enim episcopus est, qui inter presbyteros primus 
est. Denique Timotheum presbyterum ordinatum sig-nificat. Sed 
quia ante se alterum non habebat, episcopus erat, unde et quemad- 
modum episcopum ordinet ostendit. Neque enim fas erat aut lice- 
bat, ut inferior ordinaret majorem. Nemo enim tribuit quod non 
accepit. " 

t Ibidem. — ** Nunc autem septera diaconos esse oportet, et ali- 
quantos presbyteros, ut bini sint per ecclesias, et unus in civitate 
episcopus." 

> Skinner, p. 219. 

l2 



1 14 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

episcopus est, qui inter presbyteros primus est.^* Besides, 
also, the superiority of Timothy is not ascribed to a 
higher order of priesthood, but to his being a primus 
presbyter ; for since Timothy was directed to ordain 
bishops, he could not have done this, if, instead of be- 
ing in equal grade, a " primus" he had been an " infe- 
rior presbyter.^ ^ Here mention is made of inferior pres- 
byters, but it is obviously clear, that though they 
had been at the period of this author canonically 
robbed of the right to ordain, they were not laymen, 
but inferiors only in relation unto the primus, or pre- 
siding presbyter of their bench. 

On 1 Tim. v. 1, he observes, that " an aged man on 
account of the respect due to his years, must be ex- 
cited to a good work with mildness, that he may re- 
ceive more easily the admonition. For when admon- 
ished, he can be respected, lest he may afterwards be 
reproved, which is dishonorable to an old man. For 
every where, among all nations, old age is honorable, 
Whence also, the synagogue, and afterwards the 
church, have had seniors, without whose counsel, no- 
thing was transacted in the church. Which^^ by what 
neglect it should have grown out of use, I know not, 
unless perhaps by the negligence of the teachers, or 
rather by their pride, whilst they desire to appear 
alone to be something. Younger men, he thinks, 
should be advised with the affection of regard, as if 
brothers, that seeing themselves admonished for the 
sake of love, tiiey may more easily correct themselves, 
forasmuch as they may discern, that his own conduct 
does not disagree with his preaching. But old women 
must be treated as mothers"—" young women as sis- 
ters."^ It is surprising, that any mind ever hap- 



k " Quod has been rendered ' which order' by mistake. In his 
questions on Leviticus, No. 25, Hilary has censured vocavit senatum, 
because implying ordincm seniorem, and has substituted vocavit sen^ 
lores Israely to exclude the idea of order of office. Consequently, 
by seniores habiiit he jneant merely old men. 

1 Ambros. Oper. torn. iii. p. 276. *' Propter honorificientiam 
aetatis majorem natu cum mansuetudine ad bonum opus provocan- 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 115 

pened to conceive this passage to contain the idea of 
lay presbyters. That here are mentioned old men, 
who were lay men, is very certain ; it likewise appears, 
that such were consulted on church affairs in ancient 
times, and also that Jewish synagogues were wont to 
do the same thing. This comment, like the text on 
which it was made, relates only to old men who are 
not presbyters. In both, they were contrasted with 
young men, and old women with young women. 
There is no mention made of office or order, in either. 
The idea of an order of presbyters in the comment 
would have been a departure from the text. The not 
taking their advice, is not stated to have been a viola- 
tion of any right, except of the respect due to years, a 
thing merely optional, yet improperly omitted. No 
inferior presbyter in the church, has been once men- 
tioned by any father or council prior to this writer. 
So far is he from alleging a general discontinuance of 
such a class of officers, that he never has hinted at the 
existence of such an officer, and for the best of reasons, 
because no such order was ever found in any Chris- 
tian church before his time. Had this author known 
of two offices of presbyters, he would have discovered 
that knowledge, when arrived at the seventeenth verse 
of this chapter, where a diversity in the exercises of 
the presbyter's duty being mentioned by the apostle, 
it has become in modern times, the foundation of an 
imaginary distinction into ruling elders, and those 
who labor in word and doctrine. Hilary has well es- 
tablished the identity of the ordination of the ruling 
presbyter or bishop, and of the other presbyters ; but 

dum, ut facUius susciplat admonitionem. Potest enim vereri com- 
monitus ne postea corripiatui-, quod turpe est seniori. Nam apud 
omnes ubique gentes, honorabilis est senectus. Unde et synag-Oj^ 
et postea ecclesia seniores habuit, quorum sine consilio nihi ageba- 
tur in ecclesia. Quod qua neg-ligentia obsoluerit, nescio, nisi forte 
doctorum desidia, aut raagis superbia, dum soli volunt, aliquid vi- 
deri. Juniores quasi fratres censet admonendos, cum dilectionis 
affectu, ut videntes amoris causa se commoneri, facilius se corrigant; 
quippe cum videant non discrepare opera ejus a prsedicatione. 
Anus vero quasi matres." — ** Adolescentulas ut sorores,*' &c. 



116 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERIfMENT 

being unable to divine the modern construction, by 
some put upon this verse, he says, " Good and faith- 
ful stewards ought not only to be judged worthy of 
honor (reward) on high, but of that which is earthly, 
that they may not be distressed with a want of sup- 
plies, but rather rejoice in their faith and doctrine. 
For he becomes more assiduous, if he be not humbled 
by want, and his influence increases, when he per- 
ceives, that he obtains the present fruit of his labors ; 
not that he may abound, but that he may not suffer 
want.""" Here no distinction is made among presby- 
ters, they being at first spoken of together in the plu- 
ral. And this officer is then named in the singular, 
the commentator thereby plainly evincing that he un- 
derstood the verse as descriptive of one office. That 
three centuries should have elapsed after Paul wrote 
this word Tc^os^tccHe?, ruling, and this sentence have 
been read daily in the original, being, in the age of 
Hilary, still a living language, spoken in the fairest 
portion of the churches ; also, that no intimation 
should have been given, in this or any other writer, 
that it described an inferior order of presbyters, is a 
posing fact to the advocates of lay presbyters. 

Hilary, the deacon, exposes the opinion of one Fai- 
cidius, that Levites were equal to priests, and deacons to 
presbyters, announcing it as boldness and presumption, 
because Levites were hajulos, porters, and deacons, 
ministros, servants. He argues :'' " The greater order 

m "Bonidispensatoresac fideles non solum honore sublimi de- 
bent digni judicari, sed et terreno, ut non contristentur indigentia 
sumptuum sed magis gaudeant fide sua et doctrina. Instantior enim 
fit, si nonhumllietur inopia, et crescit in illo authoritas, cum videt 
se etiam in prsesenti lab oris sui fructum percipere, non ut abundet, 
sedutnon deficiat." Ambros. Oper.tora. iii. p. 277. 

n Quest, ci. August, torn. iv. p. 779. *' Major enim ordo intra 
se et apud se habet et minorem, presbyter enim et diaconi agit 
officium et exorcistae et lectoris. Presbyterum autem intelligi epis- 
copum, probat Paulus apostolus, quando Timotheum quern ordi- 
navit presbyterum, instruit qualem debeat creare episcopum. Quid 
est enim episcopus, nisi primus presbyter, hoc est, summus sacer- 
dos? Deniquenonaliterquamcompresbyteros, hie vocat et consa- 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 117 

contains in it the less, for the presbyter acts the part 
of deacon, exorcist, and reader. And Paul the apos- 
tle proves, that a presbyter is to be understood a bish- 
op, seeing he instructs Timothy, whom he ordained a 
presbyter, what kind of man he ought to create a 
bishop. For what is a bishop, unless a first presby- 
ter, that is, a chief priest ? Wherefore, he calls them 
no otherwise than his co-presbyters and co-priests."^- 
" The order of the deacon is to receive from the priest 
and give to the people." 

This passage well accords with the evidence of fact, 
which has hitherto appeared in detail; that the priori- 
ty of the bishop or first presbyter was merely adven- 
titious, and by no means, however supported by can- 
ons, a diversity in order of office ; there being origi- 
nally but one ordinary preaching order in the church 
of Christ, which was that of presbyters ; and that 
bishops, after every effort to elevate them by ecclesi- 
astical authority and preferences, had no other than 
presbyterial ordination. If there were not different 
kinds of presbyters, it results, that none of them were 
laymen. Also, the fact, that deacons still, in the mid- 
dle of the fourth century, received the bread and wine 
from the hands of the presbyters, and conveyed those 
elements to the people, clearly evinces, that there ex- 
isted at that period no such intermediate grade of 
elders in the churches. 

cerdotes suos. " — *' Diaconi ergo ordo est, acclpere a saqerdote, et 
sic dare plebi ,** 



SECTION XIII. 

AtJianasius was a deacon, then archdeacon, and then a bishop. The powerful 
opponent of Arius. Often banished and still preserved. He conformed to 
the canons of Nice, which gave ordination to bishops. In Aleouindria there 
were different congregations under different presbyters^ who aU made one 
presbytery for the purpose of ordination, and had one Tr^oialetSi i7ri<rKO?ros 
or bishop. Optatus lived in Numidia, and conformed to the government of 
his day; bishops, presbyters and deacons, his seniors were not officers — 
Aerius accorded in views of government with Hilary the deacon, and lived 
in Pontus. 

Athanasius excelled neither in style nor eloquence, 
yet in strength of understanding, clearness of concep- 
tion, and choice of expression, on abtruse subjects, he 
was surpassed by none of that age. 

That this champion against Arianism, was duly 
chosen and ordained to be the bishop of Alexandria, 
according to the customs of that church, and the direc- 
tions of the council of Nice, whereof he had been a 
very active member but five months before, there is no 
reason to question. That he had attended that coun- 
cil as a deacon, and at the death of Alexander was an 
archdeacon, are clear.* But that he was at any pe- 
riod a presbyter, except as that office identifies itself 
with that of bishop, we have no where any proof, un- 
less a general expression left by Gregory Nazianzan 
^ can be received as such. The words of this father, 
compared with the views of that age exhibited in our 
last section, and with the circumstances recorded of 
the placing Athanasius in the chair, probably extended 



» Athan. Oper. 2d vol. 547, 523, 521, 570. — »«f» luci tov Ta>r <tg- 

^titeiKOVcev 0ai6/u.oVf &C. 

^ Greg. Nazianz. Oper. i. vol. 376. — ttavm tuv rotr fiA^fxmi 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 119 

only to the office of deacon, and his promotion to be 
the head of his order. His extermination was the set- 
tled purpose of the Arians, but Providence always de- 
feated these schemes, and truth prevailed against the 
imperial authority which they wielded. His ostracisms 
were blessings to the provinces; for in every place to 
which he came, he was a learned and insuperable ad- 
vocate of the doctrine of the Trinity. Self-defence 
led him to claim and exercise powers, justified only by 
the exigencies of his condition. Thus his refusal, upon 
his second restoration, to permit a single church of the 
Arians at Alexandria, being suspended upon the con- 
dition of a like toleration of the orthodox party in 
other cities, appears to have been founded in policy, 
rather than in right. His popularity at home, protec- 
tion abroad, and long concealment from persecutors, 
prove that his episcopal administration, however un- 
scriptural, had not been tyrannical. 

There occurs a passage in a circular written by the 
Synod of Alexandria, and preserved in his second apo- 
logy, wherein they defend him from the charge of 
breaking a chalice of certain schismatics, by denying 
that there was any church at the place, any celebra- 
tion of the ordinance at the time, or the existence of a 
presbyter there, except the far-famed Ischyras, who 
was never chosen by a church, and when Alexander 
received the presbyters, who had been constituted by 
Miletius, he was not numbered with them: nor had he 
been thus set apart in that place. When therefore was 
Ischyras a presbyter? "By whom constituted? Was 
he by Collythus, since this remains? But because Col- 
lythus died a presbyter, every imposition of his hand 
was void, and all those who were constituted by him in 
the schism, became laymen," &c.*^ This argument is 
founded upon the supposition that Ischyras was not a 
presbyter, and therefore had no right to administer 

* Vol. i. 570. T/vo? x'i-'Teta-Tixra.vroi'y etfct koXXov&ov, tovto yag 
Avlou yfyoviv eijtvpsf, &c. 



120 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the ordinance; and that he was not a presbyter, be- 
cause Collythus had no right to ordain him such, " un- 
der a pretence that he was a bishop, when he was 
not." ^ The members of the synod to which the church 
of Alexandria appertained, were neither ignorant of 
that canon which confined the ordination of bishops to 
bishops,^ nor unacquainted with the ancient govern- 
ment of the church of Alexandria, secured to it by the 
council of Nice/ Collythus did not ordain by virtue 
of his office as presbyter, but as if he was a bishop, who 
presided over presbyters, which he was not, and such 
he was afterwards judicially decided never to have 
been. It has been alleged that Ischyras had no church, 
had been ordained by a schismatic, and out of the dio- 
cess. There is also another ground which Athanasius 
has particularly stated, "Mareotes was a part of Alex- 
andria, and there never was a bishop or chorepiscopus 
constituted in it, but the churches of the w^hole dis- 
trict were under the bishop of Alexandria, and each of 
the presbyters had their own sections."^ From the 
first planting of the gospel in cities, one presbytery 
only existed in each, and when from an increase of 
numbers there were many places of worship, the pres- 
byters served in the different congregations, but ordin- 
nations were performed only by the presbytery of 
the city, and each had its permanent president, nposalcoi, 
who was afterwards called E7ii(jxo7tos, bishop, a name at 
first common to all presbyters. If a single presbyter 
should exercise the power of ordination, especially 
within the district, over which his presbytery had al- 
ways exercised that power, it was deservedly account- 

d Ibid. p. 616. vTro ystp KQWovBov TCiv 7r^i<r^t/]epov <pct,vl'''(rQ(fTO{ 

ITfKncOTDlVi &C. 

e Council of Nice. Canon iv. 
. f Canon, vi. 

yiyoviV iTnoKOTTOii cvSi x^gi7ri<7K07ro?-, ctWct Teumc Axs^aty/gt/rtc 
iTriiTKOTra) cti i)tK\}t(ricti TTctcnic tjj? X^i^^ vvoKHvlAh iKA</]oi Si roof 
Tr^ia-jiOli^m ix-u rctg iSia; KoofAAQ, — Athan. apol. ii. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 121 

ed a nullity, and such an unfounded claim of presi- 
dency by CoUythus was properly denied him by his 
brethren. 

The important life of Athanasius was devoted 
to the defence of truth, and almost all that he 
wrote, was in vindication of that cause which he had 
successfully defended in the council of Nice. A con- 
siderable portion of the tracts collected together as 
his works, were certainly not his, and, among the rest, 
the creed that goes by his name. But his genuine writ- 
ings remain to this day second to no human production 
on the subject of the Trinity. At length he terminat- 
ed his tempestuous voyage of life, A. D. 373. 

About the same period lived Optatus, bishop of 
Milevis, a city of Numidia, who wrote six books 
against Parmenianus, the successor of Majorinus. 
After the death of Mensurius their bishop, the Chris- 
tian people of the city of Carthage elected CoeciHanus, 
who was ordained by the neighbouring bishops; those 
of Numidia, who had been neglected, took oifence, con- 
vened and ordained Majorinus, altar against altar. 
CoeciHanus was an archdeacon when ordained ; and 
Majorinus being of the same order, his reader, received 
ordination.^ Neither did the Donatists object this cir- 
cumstance against Coecilianus, nor the Catholics deem 
it an objection to the ordination of Majorinus. These 
facts are mentioned merely in confirmation of the simi- 
lar occurrence alleged in the account of the ordination 
of Athanasius, being free from every imputation of in- 
formality, because the episcopal was, as we have seen, 
originally, and ought ever to be deemed really, the 
presbyterial ordination, and not of two kinds, for of 
presbyters there are not two kinds, which the modern 
notion of lay presbyters gratuitously supposes. 

The classification of the clergy by this writer, per- 
fectly accords with those of his century. In the first 
priesthood, he places bishops; in the second, presby- 

^ Optat. Lib. i. p. 18. Adhuc diaconum ordinarent Coecilianum, 
p. 19. Majorinus, qui lectoi* in diaconis Coeciliani fuerat, episcopus 
ordinatus est, &c. 

M 



122 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ters; in the third, deacons, and other ministers.* When 
he mentions the aged men among the people, he cau- 
tiously avoids the use of the term presbyter, lest its 
official should be mistaken for its appellative meaning; 
and adopts the word senior, or some equivalent phrase. 
Thus, when relating the obedience of Mensurius to im- 
perial process, the doubtfulness of his return to Car- 
thage, and his anxiety about the safety of the treasures 
of the church, he says, "He committed them to old 
men deemed worthy of trust, taking an inventory of 
them, which he delivered to an old wom.an, with direc- 
tions to deliver it to whomsoever she should observe to 
be the occupant of the episcopal chair." ^ It is evident 
that these seniors were communicants, for when the 
property was demanded* they withdrew from the com- 
munion; but neither resignation of office, nor deposi- 
tion is mentioned. Nor does any circumstance appear 
that would lead to the conclusion, that they had been 
officers. They were selected quasi Jideles, upon the 
ground of character ; their being communicants and 
aged, were circumstances conducive to confidence; 
and the inventory was for still greater security, taken 
and intrusted to an aged woman. The last precaution 
would scarcely have been adopted, had they been offi- 
cers, and consequently as such deemed worthy of trust 
by, and responsible to, the church. The peculiar cir- 
cumstances of the case, the use of the word seniores-, 
not presbyteri, the fact that presbyters at that period 
were second in the priesthood, added to the circum- 

i P. 13. "Quid commemorem laicos, — quid ministros plurimos? 
quid diaconos in tertio ? quid presbyteros in secundo sacerdotio con- 
stitutes? Ipsi apices et principes omnium episcopi, &c. lib. ii. p. 
39. *Certa membra sua habet ecclesia, episcopos, presbyteros, dia- 
conos, ministros, et turbamfidelium.' Ibid. p. 46. — "Cum sintqua- 
tuor genera capitum in ecclesia, episcoporum, presbyterorum, dia- 
conorum, et fidelium," &,c. "Invenistis diaconos, presbyteros, epis- 
copos, fecistis laicos." 

kibid. lib. i. p. 17. *'Qu?e, quasi fidelibus, senioribus commen- 
davit commemoratorio facto, quod cuidam aniculx dedisse dicitur; 
ita ut si ipse non rediret, reddita pace Clu-istianis, anicula illi daret 
Quem in episcopal! cathedra sedentem inveniret." 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 123 

stance, tliat even the deacons were clerical, render it 
strange that this passage should have been thought any 
proof of the existence of subordinate official presby- 
ters. That the office of ^'ruling elders" in protestant 
churches should have been attempted to be supported 
by those passages vv^hich in ancient writers, represent 
the aged of the church to have been called upon for 
advice or testimony, argues equal deficiency of proofs, 
and intemperance of zeal. 

The terms major natu and senior, denoting an aged 
man, and thus corresponding in meaning to the Greek 
word presbyter, have been by such Latin writers as Cy- 
prian, who was inimical to the office of presbyter, sub- 
stituted for it in its official sense; but it is believed, 
upon careful examination, that Optatus has done so in 
no instance. And the supposition that at this period 
there were inferior to deacons, who were all preach> 
ers, certain lay officers or ruling elders, who were de- 
nominated seniores and seniores plebis, is destitute of sup- 
port. Whence did they spring? Were they a species 
of presbyter? and if so, how came they to be laymen? 
By what means, and on what occasion, did the dea- 
cons rise above tliem? And where is the proof that 
there were two branches of elders, a higher and a 
lower?' ^ The seniores in civil society, and the seniores 
ecdesice were evidently men of advanced age. Eccle- 
siastic may indeed be synonymous with clerical, but 
ecclesiasiici viri] signified men belonging to the church, 
in contradistinction unto those members of society who 
were not of the church. Thus in Augustine we find 
presbyters and seniores made parties to a suit, and of the 
same side, the former as officers of the church, and 
the latter as private citizens holding the legal title to 
the property or possession, claimed by them as seniores 
plebis, the representatives of the people of the church, 
ifl which respect they were ecclesiasiici mri. 



' M» KetBio-Omtf /UKreeluf '?r^t<r0vlt^a)V t^ivlalote Siakovoic, it must 
not be allowed to deacons to sit in the midst of presbyters. — Coun- 
cil of Nice, Can. xviii. 



124 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

They were more generally called seniores plebis, be- 
cause they were neither members of the presbytery, 
nor were they deacons, or of the lower clergy. To 
them, no trust, no authority, no clerical duty is ever as- 
signed; but in matters of moment, their opinions and 
sage advices were sought, and considered as the coun- 
sel of the people. This wholesome practice was not 
improperly followed at the reformation, as we may at 
some period see; but this was no apology for foisting 
into the church of Christ a new office, and casting out 
deacons, into whose place and employment, ruling el- 
ders have been intruded. But they are still properly 
accounted deacons, and commissioned as such in many 
of our churches ; but where they are considered of- 
ficers, rtpofa7w7f? TipssjBvls^oL ruling elders, they are impro- 
perly named, unauthorized by the New Testament, and 
without example in the ancient churches. Ecclesias- 
tical government from the days of Constantino became 
through the influence of the council of Nice, nearly 
uniform throughout the civiKzed world. The advo- 
cates of clerical authority by uniting church and state, 
reared an episcopal monopoly of power, friendly to 
despotism, and therefore carefully cherished by the 
Christian emperors; but presbyters were nowhere, 
even in a solitary instance, reduced to the condition of 
laymen. In almost every writer, hitherto examined, 
some evidence of primitive parity in the ordinary 
preaching office may be found, but almost as soon as 
civil power took the side of Christianity, the clerical 
superiority, which had been gained by courtesy and 
claimed by usage, boasted a right to govern, and as- 
sumed a threatening aspect. 

The views which Hilary the deacon has been ob- 
served to have retained of the office of presbyter or 
bishop, were precisely those of Aerius his contempo- 
rary, who escaped not clerical persecution, though far 
distant in Cappadocia or Pontus. The name of the 
former has been almost blotted out, that of the latter 
consigned to infamy and detestation. That he swerv- 
ed to the Arian side is probable, but this was not the 



OT CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 125 

cause of his offensiveness. Eustathius, his unequal 
but preferred competitor, was avowedly of the same 
party. He did indeed condemn prayers and offerings 
for the dead, and the observance of the public Jewish 
fasts; but his great crime lay in holding that mortifying 
truth, that the presbyterial and episcopal offices were 
originally the same, and in withdrawing from the 
church of Sebastia.™ Augustine refers to Epiphanius, 
who represents him to have asked, " as to what is a 
bishop before a presbyter ? In what do they differ? 
The order is the same, the honor one, and the excel- 
lence one; the bishop imposes hands, and so does the 
presbyter; the bishop performs the whole of public 
worship, and the presbyter in like manner ; the bishop 
sits upon a throne and so does the presbyter."" No 
mention is here made of any difference among pres- 
byters. Had there existed some, who laboured not in 
word and doctrine, but were subordinate, they ought to 
have been excepted. Of such we have found no, not 
the least, intimation in any writer in ancient times. 
But from the earliest period, rt^osaliols^, or presiding 
presbyters, whom an apostle deemed worthy of dou- 
ble honor, have been of common occurrence, and at 
length having monopolized the name bishop, did in the 
age which is passing under our present examination, 
with the aid of the civil power, erect themselves into a 
superior order, against which it was the honor and in- 
felicity of Aerius, to bear his testimony. His fate fur- 
nishes another example, that truth is a feeble defence 
against power. His motives we know not; if disap- 

m Aug-ustin. torn. vi. col. 25. Orare, vel offeire promortuis ob- 
lationem non oportere, nee statuta solemniter celebranda esse jeju- 
nia, seel cum quisque voluerit jejunandum, ne videatur esse sub 
leg-e, presbyterum ab episcopo nulla differentia debere discerni. 

n Epiphani. adv. h seres, lib. iii. torn. i. p. 906. TutIiv i7ri(rK.o^os 
TT^o; 7rpiTl2ulegov; ovStv ^laKXaClIu ovlog tovtov. juia yct^ it/jiv 7«t|/f, 

KOil fXlA Tt/UtH, KAt Iv A^ia/UA. ^U^oBiJBt tTTKncOTrOC AKKA KAI 

TTgio-^uli^og. Kour^ov J'iSae(rtv o iTriaicoTrosy o/ucoiug x.At a 7rgia-/3tile^c(, 

THT> QtKOVOfXlAV T«C XaI^UAQ TTOiit iTrKrKOTFOQ, K*i ^gg(r/3u7<gflC 
(JKrAVrceS, KAbi^VTAl O iTTla-KOTTOS tVt Toy QgOyOVi tt-A^t^iTAt ICAI 

m2 



126 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C, 

pointment was his inducement, nevertheless the ground 
he assumed w^as the truth, and v^^as supported by am- 
ple proofs; it is also very clear that the opposition 
which prevailed against him, was not because he was 
an Arian, but because he espoused a plan of reform, 
which ecclesiastical policy could not tolerate." Had 
he only borne his testimony against the clerical abuses 
of his day, and not actually withdrawn from the hier- 
archy, he might have escaped persecution. Then 
ceasing to be an object of odium, he would have drop- 
ped into oblivion, the common receptacle of the names 
of thousands, who have succumbed unto, or perished in 
opposing the ecclesiastical tyranny of the ages' in 
which they lived, preferring a good conscience and 
poverty of spirit, characteristics of the saints, to the 
worldly policy, and personal aggrandizement of the 
haughty successors of the despised fishermen of Ga- 
lilee. 

o Hooker's justification (Eccles. pol. iii. 130.) of the sentence 
against Aerius on account of "his fault in condemning- the order of 
the church, and his not submitting him.self unto that order," is pre- 
dicated upon, either the infalhbihty of the church, or her authority 
by which she can sanctify error. If a ^'madman,'' [hiAvicoSui, 
Epiph.] his madness lay in following" the Scriptures, and the first 
government of the churches; for as Stillingfleet observes (Ireni- 
cum 276,) *'upon the strictest inquiry Medinas' judgment will 
prove true, that Jerom, Aug-ustine, Ambrose, Sudulius, Primasius, 
Chiysostom, Theodoret, Theoplylact were all of Aerius's judg- 
ment as to the identity of both the name and order of bishops, 
and presbyters, in the primitive church." When Potter un- 
justly infers from the same facts, (Church Gov. p. 193,) that, 
"it was the received opinion in that age, that the order of 
bishops was superior to that of presbyters;" he should ra- 
ther have said, that such superiority was, in that age, the 
law of the church established against the truth, and the word of 
God. For the crime imputed to Aerius, appears neither to have 
been error nor false doctrine, but schism; a sin for which the church^- 
adjudges the minority in every ecclesiastical separation punishable; 
and the civil law, that party "which opposes itself to tlie religion 
of the state;" in the view of each, propriety of motives, and ac- 
cordance of doctrines and discipline with the word of God, are so 
far from justifying', that the allegation has been in every other case, 
as well as tliat of the "mad?iesd" of Aerius, a confession of guilt. 



SECTION XIV. 

Basil the Great ; Ids advantages of education ; succeeded Athanasius as head 
of the orthodox against the Avians- — Like him, he exercised the clerical 
power gained by the canons. — He knew that a presbyter was originally the 
highest ordinary officer. — Gregory of Nazianzum complained of ecclesiasti- 
cal distinctions as innovations, and shunned the convocations of bishops as 
causes of evil, and attributes their consecrations to a love of superiority. — 
Gregory of Nyssa was the brother of Basil, and accounted all who presided 
in the church to be presbyters. 

Basil the Great, was a native of Caesarea, in Cappa- 
docia. Born about three years after the council of 
Nice, he received the advantages of an" education at 
Constantinople and Athens, as well as at Antioch in 
Syria. The same instructions matured Basil and Ju- 
lian for their different spheres in life. Basil became a 
presbyter, and whilst such, was elected metropohtan ; 
this''^ being then deemed the order of advancement. ^ 
An ornament of the church,*^ in eloquence he was 
second to no one.'^ Left by the death of Athanasius 
at the head of the orthodox party, when Arianism 
possessing the government, reigned without mercy, 
his firmness of faith and intrepidity of conduct, over- 
came the pusillanimous Valens, and proved of signal 
advantage to the cause. He presided through the 
short but stormy period of about nine years, and died, 
A. D. 378. Placed at first over a numerous synod of 
bishops, he soon witnessed the dismemberment of his 
charge. Five provinces arose out of Cappadocia. 
Canonical was the offspring of civil power, and was 

a Socrat. Schol. lib. iv. c. 21. Greg. Naz. Oper. vol. i. p. 785. 

^ lav Tit^iv Tou 0nfAATog. Ibid. 336. 

c Tug inx.Ki<riaic o Kocr/uog /Sa.(riKiios. Photius, 890. 

d QytTgi/o? cTjt/Tsgec. Idem. 378. 



126 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

obliged, as yet, reasonably to succumb to it. Nyssa, 
the charge of Gregory, his brother, remained ; but Na- 
zianzum, of the other Gregory, was assigned to Cap- 
padocia tertia. 

Basil, who could deny himself every thing but eccle- 
siastical power, in a letter to Amphilochius, the metro- 
politan of Lycaonia, relative to churches which could 
be claimed by neither of them, says :® " You yourself 
know, that of whatsoever sort they who preside are, of 
the same kind will the habits of those who are govern- 
ed generally be. Wherefore, it is perhaps better that 
some approved person, if it be possible, be appointed 
to the government of the city, and allowed to manage 
all concerns upon his own responsibility ; only, if pos- 
sible, let him be a servant of God, a workman not to he 
ashamed, not looking after his own things, but those of the 
many, that they may be saved." Over the small cities 
and little villages, instead of a bishop's seat, which they 
formerly respectively had, he thought there should be 
placed vi^ocdTfaiJisvotf presiding clergy, and over the chief 
city a bishop ; so that Isaurus, a seat of Arianism, 
might be girded around, and that Basil and Amphi- 
lochius should afterwards ordain bishops as circun> 
stances might require. 

Such were the ambitious views and artful contri- 
vances of one of the most pious, eloquent, and learned 
metropolitans in the latter part of the fourth century, 
communicated to another of the same rank, who was, 
no doubt, also of the same mind. Zeal against heresy 
was their plausible apology, thirst for domination the 
secret spring, and the canons of the council of Nice 
the basis of that authority, and the rule of its exercise, 
which they claimed and exerted in opposition to the 
word of God, and the express command of the head 
of the church, who had interdicted the claim of lord- 
ship over his servants. 

In his commentary upon Isaiah iii. 2, on the word 
*' ancient" (ipf elder) he observes ; " Among the things 

e Basil, vol. iii. p. 422. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 129 

that are threatened, is also the removal of the elder, 
seeing that the advantage of his presence is not small 
An elder is he, who is dignified with the first seat, and 
enrolled in the presbytery, bearing the character of a 
presbyter ; especially, indeed, if he be an unmarried 
man, or if even, according to the law of the Lord,*" the 
husband of one zcife, having faithful children, not accused 
of riot, or unruly, he being not self -willed, not soon angry, 
neither gixen to wine, nor filthy lucre, but a lover of hospi- 
tality^ and of the good; sober, holy, just, temperate; 
holding fast the faitlful word according to doctrine, that he 
may be able, by sound instruction, both to exhort and to 
convince gainsayers ; this is the elder whom the Lord 
will take away from a sinful people."^ This elucida- 
tion of the character of a Jewish elder, in the words 
of Paul's description of a Christian bishop, evinces 
that Basil knew that in the days of the apostles the 
office was the same. The eloquent metropolitan, 
perceiving that the terms presbyter and bishop had 
been promiscuously used in the direction given to 
Titus, drops the latter name, and attributes the cha- 
racteristics enumerated with both to the presbyter, 
that he might suitably represent the magnitude of the 
calamity expressed in the prophetic denunciation. 
Few in his day enjoyed or more valued clerical pre- 
ferment; but its canonical origination, yet inchoate, 
was then so far from being a matter of concealment, 
that it was the vaunted basis of pre-eminence and 
power. The testimony of this bishop of bishops is a 
candid confession, that, at the first, the occupant of 
the highest seat in a church was a presbyter, and 
that such were instructed in sound doctrine, and able 
to exhort and convince. This proof does not even 
surmise the existence of presbyters of different kinds, 
and is, therefore, in utter exclusion of those of the 
imaginary inferior grade. 

In his " Morals," he classes together in one chap- 

f Titus i. 6—9. 

s Basil, tom.ii, p. 96. 



130 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ter, directed to the same object, the Scriptural cha- 
racter and duties of bishops and presbyters, taken 
from the epistles to Timothy and Titus, and places 
them under the title of " What things are said con- 
junctly concerning bishops and presbyters."^ 

The next chapter has the title, " Concerning dea- 
cons,"^ and details their first appointment from the 
acts of the apostles, and some of their moral qualifica- 
tions from the epistle to Titus. Thus he discovers his 
opinion, that there are mentioned in those Scriptures 
but two offices, presbyters or bishops, and deacons. 
Had there been known in his day the supposed inter- 
mediate office of mute presbyters, some intimation of 
them on this occasion might have been expected. But 
the silence of non-existence then reigned on the sub- 
ject of an order in the church of which no one had 
conceived an idea. 

Gregory, bishop of Nazianzum, the son of the first 
of the name and office, was the friend and companion 
of Basil the Great, and was affirmed, but with doubt- 
ful probability, to have been his senior. He studied in 
Palestine, at Alexandria, and afterward at Athens. 
Notwithstanding the preference attributed by Photius 
to Basil, the writings of no Christian father exhibit 
more the luxuriance of imagery, and charms of elo- 
quence, than do those of this Gregory.'^ Sasima, over 
which he was at first appointed bishop, would be 
deemed, in our day, an impoverished parish. His 
complaints were removed, but his sphere was still 
limited, when, after his father's death, he was chosen 
bishop of Nazianzum. He went to Constantinople, 
A. D. 376, and four years afterwards was placed by 
Theodosius in the great church of that city, instead 
of Hemophilus, who had been ejected for Arian prin- 



Basil, torn. ii. 491. 

i Uipt SiAKovav. Ibid. 

k Gregorius primum Sasimonim deinde Nazietizenus episcopus 
vir eloquentissimus prxceptor meus. Jerom. vol. i. cap. 117. 



OF CHRISTIAJf CHURCHES. 131 

ciples, which appointment was confirmed by the first 
council of Constantinople. 

The piety of this father forbids us to think he would 
have inveighed against ecclesiastical pre-eminence, if 
he had thought the higher clerical orders of his day 
founded on the sacred Scriptures ; yet he complains : 
" How I wish there had been no precedence, cf^of 5pta, no 
priority of place, toTtov 7tpotl[A,i^6li, no authoritative dicta- 
torship, -tv^wvixri apovoixia, that we might be distinguished 
by virtue only. But now this right hand, and left 
hand, and middle, and higher, and lower ; this going 
before, and following in company, have produced to 
us much unprofitable affliction, brought many into a 
snare, and thrust them away into the company of the 
goats ; not only of the inferior class, but also of the 
shepherds, who being masters in Israel have not knoicn 
these things} To affirm, that the validity of ordinances 
depends on the truth of the grace of him who admin- 
isters, is error ; but to acknowledge those to be of- 
ficers in Christ's church who deny him and his sacri- 
fice, is to acknowledge men to be what they disclaim. 
Such was the sentiment of Gregory relative to the 
Arians ; for speaking of the succession of Athanasius 
to the seat of Mark in Alexandria, he observes: 
"Sameness of doctrine is sameness of chair, and oppo- 
sition of sentiments is also opposition of office, for the 
one has the name, and the other the truth of the suc- 
cession."" They only are of the church who are 
members of the body of Christ ; from them the rest 
are denominated, and where they are not, there is no 
church. In his apology to Procopius for not coming 
to a council at Constantinople, he thus expresses him- 
self: "It is my desire, if the truth may be told, to 
shun every convocation of bishops, because I have 
seen the termination of no synod advantageous, not 
producing the removal of evils so much as the accu- 
mulation of them ; for the love of strife, and jeal- 



* G.eg. Naz, vol. i. p. 484. 
™ Idem. vol. i. p. 377. 



132 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ousy of power, if you will allow me to write it, do even 
exceed utterance.'"" In a letter to Philagrius, he 
says : " We are worn out striving against envy and 
consecrated bishops, who destroy the common peace, 
and subordinate the word of faith to their own love of 
superiority."* 

In a description of the church at Byzantium, which 
he calls the eye of the -world, the chain by which the east 
and the west are connected, and the common empo- 
rium of the faith, he observes : " Behold the bench of 
presbyters, dignified by age and understanding ; the 
regularity of the deacons, not far from the same spirit ; 
the decency of the readers ; the attention of the peo- 
ple, as well in the men as in the women, equal in vir- 
tue."P, 

Here are presbyters, deacons, readers, and people. 
This church cannot be presumed to have been defec- 
tive of any class of officers existing in other churches ; 
yet in it inferior elders found no place. Had such a 
grade then existed, it is unaccountable, that in every 
enumeration they should have been studiously con- 
cealed. 

In his twenty-sixth oration, he has said many things 
of the diversity of stations in the church, with eloquent 
persuasives to subordination, and contentedness with 
their respective allotments, but designedly in generals. 
In his allusion to 1 Cor. xii. 28, he explains helps, 
wtifKri^ii^^ by ci^orfT'atftat, whereby he meant those who 
took care of weaker Christians, to counsel them, and 

» Greg.N. vol.i. p. 814. 'E.X"> f^^"^ ovra?, u ^u TctxuBcc ypat.cpiiv, 
OBffTi twavra. (rvXKoyov <^vyHV HTsriCKOtwoeV) on /unSi/uioi o'vvoS'ou TiKoe 
uJ^ov ^pucrrov, (xn^i wa-iv K'/.Km f/.ctK\ov ecr^nicuictc, n TrpoT^mcnv. at 

ya.p (plKQViiKlitt ILAl (plKAp^lCt ctKKct OTTUg fA»Ti (^OpTtKQV lITroKuCnf 
Ct/TO) y^cKpOVTCt X.CLI KoyOV KpHTTOVi?. 

o Idem, vol.i. p. 823. Kiic/u.)i}(.a.fA.iv ayavi^o/uivoi ^poc rev <pBovov 
na.i Toy? apov; iTria-KOTrov?, tuv icoivnv ojuovoiav Siciwowctg Kcti rav tSicey 

AtXOViUllaV TO TUC^lO-TiCeS TTitpipycV TTOiO/UiVOC. 

V Vol. i. p; 517. iJ'i TTgiT^wipcjov crvvsS'ptoy ttokiu. H.cti cruvt;; 
TiTlfj(.ii/i<iVa)V', SictKOVcev fvrct^ictv, ov Ttoppm rov avrou 7rvtv{xa.Titv 
etyveoa-Toov iVKOcr/aictVf Xttov <piKofjcct.Btu,v, osrov ey a.iS'pA<riv, ca-or (ru 
yvoii^iriiv ApiTHV oy.oTty.ctig. 



OF CHRISTIAJr CHURCHES. 133 

protect them when persecuted ; and by governments^ 
xv^efivrj(S£Ci, he Understood ofatSoywyta aapxos, those who 
admonished persons addicted to sensuaUty. To con- 
ceive the idea, that these terms were used for lay 
presbyters, was left for a novelty to generations then 
future. That the office of Gregory the father, as 
bishop of Nazianzum, to which the son was afterwards 
chosen, was that of a ruhng elder, or presiding pres- 
byter, appears in his own words, when he styles him- 
self " a little shepherd, the president of a small flock, 

sioi^riv oTltyos, xu-i- MiobfA,v\,av fxix^uv ■cJ^atarjyxws. "1 Ihis IS 

confirmed also by his representation of Basil as a 
presbyter, and a co-presbyter with himself In a cir- 
cular, preserved in the works of his son, he says, that 
"he would prefer no one of all those -who were in 
honor among them, to his son Basil, a presbyter most 

beloved of God, t'ou Qsov ^i%£6tatov vcov ynjiav BafftXftoi; 

o;v^rtp£j,3DT'fpoi;."*' Gregory the father, was an Ante- 
nicene bishop, and a witness of the clerical aggran- 
dizement introduced by the first Christian emperor; 
yet whilst he might approve the erection of a Christian 
hierarchy as a security against pagan persecution, he 
represents facts as they really were ; and has shown, 
that Basil was no more than a presbyter when chosen 
to be metropolitan of Cappadocia. Also, in the next 
letter, which is supposed to have been written by the 
son, in the name of his father, calling him " our son 
Basil, a co-presbyter," he acknowledges himself to be 
such. When his son, the pious Gregory Nazianzen, 
found himself an object of insidious envy with those 
of his own creed, he indignantly refused to retain the 
high office assigned him at Constantinople.' In his 
place Nectarius, a noble layman, was elected the first 
bishop of the east. Gregory's disgust has been patheti- 
cally recorded by himself in two poems.* Also, a 



q Greg, Naz. Opera, vol. i. p. 785. 
r Ibid. p. 786. 

^ Socrat. Schol. lib. v. c. viii. 
* Carmen ix. 

N 



134 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMEirT 

Latin translation of a lost paper appended to his 
works, written perfectly in his manner, and generally 
received, exhibits with probability both his piety and 
chagrin. " Possess for yourselves honors and power, 
things in your view of highest importance. I bid you 
adieu, that you may indulge your insolence, and divide 
by lot your patriarchates. Govern the world at your 
pleasure, go from place to place, casting down and 
raising up, for these things are your delight. You 
may go on, but I betake myself to God, for him I live 
and breathe, to him alone I look, to whom my mother 
gave me by vows before I saw the light, to whom I 
am closely bound, as well by dangers as endearing 
watchfulness. To him will I consecrate the sincere 
affections of my soul, as far as they can be rendered 
his, holding lonely communion with him alone." 

Gregory, the brother of Basil, after having taught 
rhetoric, became bishop of Nyssa, in Cappadocia. 
Though commended for his fluency by the learned 
Photius,^ he certainly indulged too much in allegory. 
The excellency of style, strength of perception, and 
eminency of piety, have not hitherto been appreciated ; 
probably because he spake Hghtly of pilgrimages, and 
was a married man. 

We have seen that every church, at first, had its 
presbytery, the presiding member of which soon mo- 
nopolized the name of overseer. This parochial epis- 
copacy, except in cities, continued till ' the council of 
Nice ; but these elders were not laymen. The hum- 
ble diocesan episcopacy, which had sprung up in cities, 
from a constant adherence to the rule that one church 
only should exist in one place, was then adopted by 
Constantino as an engine of power, and made the 
basis of a hierarchy, guarded by numerous canons, 
and placed in competition with the pagan priesthood, 
which it soon cast down. Attired in the sacerdotal 
robes, and seated on thrones, the successors of the 



u TTOTAfAoc Tcev \oya>v vvjo-ni T^>tyoftos. Phot. Bibliothec. 
p. 890. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 135 

despised Galilean fishermen at length became the 
rulers of kings, and the lords of the world. This pro- 
gress was retarded by ecclesiastical jealousies. Alter- 
nate persecutions restrained the Arians and the ortho- 
dox party, and delayed the full exercise of canonical 
power. Gregory Nyssen, from such, or better motives, 
though a bishop, and the brother of his metropolitan, 
writes as a pastor of a church, rather than a diocesan. 
Thus he observes :^- " That all should not intrude 
themselves into a knowledge of the mysteries, but 
choosing one from themselves, able to understand 

divine things, <i^%a f«aa|<xvT'6? al savtcav 'tov ;t«p»?tfat ta Osia 

^vvafitvov, they should submissively hear ; esteeming 
worthy of faith whatever they should learn of him. 
For it is said, all are not apostles, nor all prophets, but this 
is not now observed in many of the churches. In an- 
other place, speaking of his own ordination, he says i^- 
" To us has come the public ministration of the spirit- 
ual supper, fj 'taji Tivsvfiatixyj^ sotia<s£0)i ^sitc/ve^yio^y whom it 
would better become to participate with, than to com- 
municate to others." The feast here intended is that 
of the gospel, from the preaching of which he had 
hoped to be excused. 

The proximity of Nyssa to the former residence of 
Thaumaturgus, adds credibility to the account he has 
given of the ordination of that father by Phcedimus, 
which, he says, was in his absence, words being sub- 
stituted for the hand, avtixn'^o^. This had always 
been the mode pursued in ordaining presbyters, who 
were of one degree. When presbyters or bishops 
were chosen, or succeeded, they were not re-ordained 
in the two first centuries ; and when canonical ordi- 
nation arose, it was not performed by imposition of 
hands, but instead of such imposition, the deacons held 
the open gospels over the head of the party, who had 
been chosen by holding up hands.* 

▼ Greg-. Nyss. Oper. vol. i. p. 220. 

^ Vol.i. p. 372. 

^ T«v (^8 SiAKoy^if TA btttt tvetyytktx itti tus tou ^tigorofoufAMiou 



136 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

He has attributed too much to Stephen, and also 
strangely erred in the adoption of the appellative sense 
of the word deaconship, v^hen he says 'J " Then Ste- 
phen, full of wisdom and grace, was called by the 
Spirit to the aid of the apostles. Let no one conceive 
from the word deaconship, tco ^taxoj^tas ovofiato, that he 
descended below the apostolic dignity, Bsvts^svsiv aojT-oD 
dapa Tft]v a7io6Tfo7icxi]v a|cav, seeing Paul acknowledged 
himself a deacon, dcaxovov, of the mysteries of Christ."^ 

After an apostrophe to the aged Simeon, of whom 
he had been discoursing, he turns to those who pre- 
side in the churches, and says : '' Seeing to you, and 
to such as you, adorned with hoary wisdom from 
above, who are presbyters indeed, and justly styled 
the fathers of the church, the word of God conducts 
us to learn the doctrines of salvation, saying, (Deut. 
xxxii. 7,) Ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thy elders, 
and they will tell thee.^' Here those who presided in 
the churches, are denominated, without exception, 
presbyters ; and the official sense is clearly exhibited 
by an allusion to the appellative meaning of the term. 
But neither episcopal superiority, nor clerical subor- 
dination, find a place. The latter had not indeed then 
come into existence : and though the former every- 
where prevailed, and even in the writer himself, yet 
his early impressions guided him to the truth, and his 
piety rendered him deiiied to the empty distinctions of 
a perishing world. 

x.i<pAX>i? AviTrTvy/uivct ititTi^cvvrcev, &c. Zonar. p. 1002. Hippol. 
vol. ii. p. 249. 

y Vol.ii. p. rm. ^ Vol. ii. p. 89Q. 



SECTION XV 



Vyril of Jerusalem, renounced his ordination of presbyter, to he ordained by an 
Arian, a bishop. Ambrose at first a lawyer. Compelled to become archbishop 
of Milan. The commentary on PauVs epistles is the work of Hilary the 
deacon- His opinion of the angels of the seven churches. Acknowledges a 
presbyter to be his co-presbyter. Disclaims the authority of an apostle and 
ilf an evangdisi. Clerical bribery common in his day. 

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, claimed a grade by ancient 
custom* of high dignity; that church also venerated 
by Christians as a mother, obtained an exception in the 
canons of the council of Nice, against the power of 
the Metropolitan of Cesarea. " Since custom has pre- 
vailed and ancient tradition, that the bishop in jElia is 
to be honored, let him have the privileges consecutive 
of such preference £;t«7co -triv axoT^ovOeicw ttj^ifiix^i the pro- 
per dignity being secured to the metropohs."^ But the 
purpose of conforming the hierarchy, in the subordi- 
nation of its offices and the extent of their jurisdictions, 
to the imperial government, conceded to Jerusalem, 
through the indecisiveness of the canon, little more 
than the name of a preference. That Cyril was made 
deacon by Macarius, and afterwards ordained a pres- 
byter by Maximus ; and that Acacius the Arian Metro- 
politan of Cesarea, in favour with Constantius, re-or- 
dained Cyril as bishop of Jerusalem, upon the stipulat- 
ed terms, that he should first renounce his office as 
presbyter and officiate again as deacon, are facts too 
plainly testified to be resisted. This stipulation was 
unnecessary, if every ordination whereby a presbyter 
becomes a bishop is a renunciation of his office as pres- 



* T* ag;t*iA eSw vide Council. Nic, can. ir, 
^ Ibid. can. vii. 

s2 



138 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

byter ; but if the first office remains, then episcopal or- 
dination resting on canons and custom only, is merely 
void. If re-ordination after suspension or deposition 
is never to be performed, it follow^s that the episcopal 
is not a re-ordination, the authority of man being the 
foundation of canonical ordination, v^hilst that of the 
Holy Ghost has authorized the other. The ordination 
of elders in presbyterian churches, must be either of 
deacons, or of presbyters, or a nullity ; if it be that of 
scriptural presbyters, then as often as any such are af- 
terguards ordained pastors, there is an equally unau- 
thorized and merely human re-ordination. That Cyril 
was not confusedly"^ or impiously^ ordained bishop, has 
been argued from the language of a subsequent coun- 
cil w^hich pronounced him " canonically ordained by 
the bishops of the province."^ This opinion vt^as found- 
ed upon the validity of his ordination as presbyter, 
though effected by an Athanasian bishop of Jerusalem, 
without the sanction of the Arian Metropolitan of Ce- 
sarea. Before the council of Nice, episcopacy was 
often defended by allusions to the Jewish priesthood, 
and their orders ; the shadow being identified with the 
substance, the obsolete sacrificial economy perpetuated, 
and the gospel ministry clothed with the rights and 
prerogatives of the Levitical hierarchy. But the can- 
ons of that council, Constantino being at its head, be- 
came the supreme law of the empire, and reasons of 
state conspiring with clerical ambition, provided that 
bishops should have power and importance, propor- 
tioned to the grade of the cities over which they ec- 
clesiastically presided. Whether the provisory canon 
had been violated by the bishop of Jerusalem, or of 

c Sacerdotio confusa jam ordinatione suscepto. Dlssertat. de 
vita Cyrilli. c. v. 27. 

d Quorum Cyrillus, quum a Maximo fuisset presbyter ordinatus, 
et postmortem ejus ita ei ab Acacio episcopo Cesariensi, et cxteris 
episcopis Arianis episcopatus permitteretur, si ordinationem Maxi- 
mi repudiasset; diacouus in ecclesia administravit; ob quam impie- 
tatem sacerdoti mercede pensatus. — Jerom. Chronico. 

e Kavi3V/*K«f Te TTitgoc <Tm fTra^^tug ^ii^olcvuB-yTX, Theod. hist. 1. 
V. c. 9. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 139 

Cesarea, it being merely a human ordinance, and the 
decision of the second council of no higher authority, 
Cyril was in fact, not only a presbyter, but a ruling el- 
der, or president of the church at Jerusalem. 

In the last of his catecheses we have the priest, the 
presbyters, and the altar, with subordinate deacons. 
" You have seen a deacon furnishing water for ablution 
to a priest and presbyters, t'« ts^o xai r'ots Ti^sGSv'gie.oii 
encircHng the altar of God. But he furnished it not 
for bodily filth, for there is none, for we at first entered 
tcrj£i(iEv the church, having no dirt on our bodies." Was 
this holy water? 

In his catecheses, the last five of which are denomi- 
nated mystagogic, those peculiarities of the Catholics, 
which the Protestants reject, are generally prematurely 
recognised. The weight of these productions as his- 
torical testimony is consequently very little; but since 
they have no bearing on our subject, it is unnecessary 
to marshal the evidence of their corruptions. The 
letter to Constantius is a standing monument of his 
weakness. In the few remains of his other writings, 
nothing has been found to our purpose. The letter to 
Augustine concerning Jerom is certainly not his, for 
he died about A. D. 386, whilst Jerom was living. He 
was an imbecile, ambitious time-server, alternately or- 
thodox and Arian,.as his interest led him. His piety 
must be submitted to another tribunal ; but with us, 
neither his personal character, nor the genuineness of 
the writings attributed to him, have competent support 
from his canonization. 

Ambrose was the son of a prsefect of Gaul, where 
he was born about A. D. 340. Upon the death of his 
father he was brought to Rome, educated, and became 
a pleader of causes. Appointed governor of Liguria 
and Emilia, and attempting to quiet a tumult, which 
had arisen upon the election of a successor to the bish- 
op of Milan, he was unexpectedly nominated and 
elected, and at length by the Emperor obliged to accept 
the oflice. He was baptized, and within a week be- 
came arch-bishop of Milan, A. D. 374, where he died 



140 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

about 396. His vvrorks consist of five tomes in two 
volumes. The commentary on the epistles of Paul 
written by Hilary the deacon has already passed under 
review ; the apology of David, and several other por- 
tions were the productions of others. 

The bishopric of Milan adjoined that of Turin, the 
Milanese on the east, and the Piedmontese on the west, 
being divided by the river Ticino, a small branch of 
the Po, in the great valley in which these two dioceses 
lay. The influence of the bishop of Rome, was ac- 
knowledged, disavowed, and re-established alike in 
both, till the times of Charles the Great. 

As their political government was the same, both 
before and after the partition of the Empire in 364, so 
was their ecclesiastical of the same kind. They were 
equally Vallenses, inhabiting the same valley, and their 
religion the same, both in the days of Ambrose and of 
Claude. And since no such sequestered primitive Chris- 
tians, as some have dreamed to have existed in that 
valley, are once mentioned in the works of this wri- 
ter, there is all the certainty that a negative admits, 
that there were none. 

In his commentary upon the words, "the seven 
stars are the angels of the seven churches," &c. in 
the Apocalypse, he observes: "We ought therefore to 
understand the seven angels to be the rectors or pre- 
sidents of the seven churches,*" because angel means 
messenger, and they who announce the word of God 
to the people, are not improperly called angels, that is, 
messengers." 

A letter of Syricius^ to the church at Milan, and 
the answer of Ambrose, signed also by a number of 
bishops and presbyters, clearly show the claim and ac- 
knowledgment of superiority in the bishop of Rome, 
who is denominated not only pastor and brother, but 
Lord. By another, Syricius appears to have written 

*" " Septem igitur angelos, redores septem ecclesiarum debemus 
intelligere," &c. — Ig-itur hoc, quod prsesuli ecclesise Ephesi a Do- 
mino dicitur, &c. Tom. v. p. 1B3. 

s Tom. V. p. 90. 



OF CHRISTIAIf CHURCHES. 141 

to Syrus, the presbyter of Ambrose,^ to reprove him 
for inattention to his charge. Ambrose concurs, de- 
nominating Syrus brother and co-presbyter, " fratrem 
nostrum et compresbyterum Syrum." The expression 
conservitium, might have been used, if the canonical 
had been original scriptural distinctions, for there was 
fellowship in their services ; but co-presbyter fairly im- 
pHes, that the archbishop was still a presbyter, which 
was strictly true, if he had been ordained such, be- 
cause i\iQ presiding presbyter, " ?t^of j7coj," is the very high- 
est ordinary officer named in the New Testament. 
Ambrose certainly had some view in which his lan- 
guage appeared to himself to be correct. But that he 
considered himself a lay presbyter is inconceivable. 

That deacons served tables and instructed others in 
the fourth century, may be inferred from these w^ords: 
" The apostles did not esteem it best to leave the word 
of God and serve tables, but each is an office of wis- 
dom, for Stephen full of wisdom w^as chosen a deacon. 
Let him therefore w^ho waits detail from him who 
teaches, and let the teacher invite the deacon. For 
the church is one body though the members be differ- 
ent, and necessary each to another."^ If deacons were 
then teachers, what were presbyters who were ever 
their superiors ? 

Ambrose exercised, but with Christian humility, all 
the powers, which, by the canons and customs of his 
day, he might claim ; but his interpretation of the 
Scriptures relative to the offices of apostles and evan- 
gelists is very different from that which some have 
adopted in our day. '* I do not claim the honor of the 
Apostles, for who (had) this, but those whom the Son 
of God himself chose; nor the grace of prophets, 
nor the authority of evangelists, nor the circumspec- 
tion of pastors ; but the attention and diligence con- 
cerning the divine writings, which the apostles placed 
last among the duties of the saints, I wish only to at- 



h Tom. r. 112, cum de conservitio nostro aliquos dirigis, &c. 
» Tom. iii. p. 95, 



142 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

tain ; for, snatched from benches of justice, and robes 
of government, unto the priesthood, I have begun to 
teach you, w^hat I have not myself learned."^ He 
neither considered himself, though an archbishop, to 
be a successor of the apostles, nor claimed the extra- 
ordinary office of evangelist ; but v^^hy he confined his 
claim to a part only of the pastoral office, is not dis- 
cernible, unless it may be imputed to his humility. 

In his day, so soon after the erection of Constan- 
tine's hierarchy, bribery had commenced. This good 
man complains, "you may see every where, those 
v^hom not merit, but money has advanced to the order 
of the episcopate ; a v^eak and ignorant populace, v^^ho 
have called to themselves such a priest. If you strict- 
ly inquire, who promoted them to be priests ? they 
forthwith answer : I have lately been ordained a bish- 
op by the archbishop, and given him a hundred shill- 
ings, seeing I had deserved to have the episcopal grace, 
which, if I had not paid, I had not been a bishop to- 
day. Wherefore it is better for me to bring the gold 
from my purse, than lose such a priesthood. I gave 
the gold, and obtained the episcopate ; I do not doubt 
that I shall soon receive, if I live, the shillings which 
I love. I ordain presbyters, consecrate deacons, and 
receive gold. Lo, the gold which I gave, I have already 
received in my purse. Wherefore the episcopate has 
cost me nothing."^ This representation of archbishop 

k Ambr.Tom. iv. 1. "Non ig-itur mihi Apostolonira gloriam ven- 
dico. Quis enim hoc, nisi quos ipse filius elegit Dei ? Non pro- 
phetarum gratiam, non virtutem Evangelistarum, non pastorum cir- 
cumspectionem; sed tantummodo intentionem et diligentiam, circa 
scripturas divinas opto assequi, quam ultimam posuit Apostolus 
inter officia Sanctorum — Ego enim de tribunalibus atque adminis- 
trationis infulis ad sacerdotium raptus, docere vos coepi, quod ipse 
non didici." 

1 "Videas, in ecclesia passim, quos non merita sed pecuniae ad 
episcopatus ordinem provexerunt: nugacem populum et indoctum, 
qui talem sibi adsciverunt sacerdotem. Quos si percunctari fideli- 
tur velis, quiseos przeficerit sacerdotes, respondent mox et dicunt, 
ab archiepiscopo sum nuper episcopus ordinatus, centumque soli- 
dos, ei dedi ut episcopalem gratiam consequi meruissem ; quos si 
minime dedissem, hodie episcopus non essero. Unde, melius est 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 143 

or bishops ordaining severally without the concurrence 
of their brethren of their respective grades,is at variance 
with the canons of the council of Nice, but unless founded 
on fact would have compromised the veracity of the 
worthy writer. The assumption of power is as common 
with ecclesiastical as civil officers ; and, for various 
reasons, effected with much less danger of reprehen- 
sion. But in this instance the evil was of small mo- 
ment, because there was only at most a violation of 
a legislative provision enacted without authority, since 
neither the council nor emperor might erect offices in 
the kingdom of Christ. 

His classification of officers in a church perfectly 
agrees with those of his day, and fairly excludes the 
possibility of the existence of lay presbyters : " What 
God requires from a bishop is one thing, that from a 
presbyter, another; and that from a deacon, another; 
and that from a clerk, another ; and that from a lay- 
man, even every individual whatsoever, is another."™ 



mihi aurum de sacello invehere, quam tantum sawerdotium perdere. 
Aiirum dedi et episcopatum comparavi; quos, amem, solidos, si 
vivo, receptum me illico non diffido; Ordino presbyteros, consecro 
diaconos, et accipio aurum. Ecce aurum, quod dedi, in meo sa- 
cello recepi, episcopatum ig-itur gratis accepi.'' Tom. iv. p. 181. 

m "Aliud est enim quod ab episcopo requirit Deus, et aliud 
quod a presbytero et aliud quod a diacono, et aliud quod a clerico, 
et aliud quod a laico, vel a sing'ulis quibusque horainibus." Tom. 
iv. 179. 



SECTION XVI. 

Epiphanius a weak and credulous writer ; intoxicated with clerical power. —His 
detractioii of Aerius. —His opinion of the difference between bishop and pres- 
bytery ; contrary to Jerom's.—His notion, that different primitive churches 
had different kinds of officers, without foundation, and contrary to evidence 
and facts.— He received the apostolical constitutions, but shows they were 
doubted. — Eusebius and Jerom say nothing of them; and they contain false 
history. — They prof ess to have existed in the life-time of Peter, and yet re- 
quire to read the gospel of John, which was written after Peter's death: 
and give, as officers, several who came into office after the death of the apos- 
tles. 

Epiphanius was born in Palestine, about the year 
332, became metropolitan of Cyprus in 366, and died 
in 402. Though acquainted with five languages,*, 
he was no proficient in Attic diction, the only test to 
which he is now subject. His credulity might have 
been at least compatible with sincerity ; had not his 
conditional promise of a miracle, to the empress, ren- 
dered even this problematical. His invasion of the 
canonical rights of John of Constantinople,^ sprang 
from his seduction by Theophilus of Alexandria, and 
both from the inebriating influence of ecclesiastical 
power, disproportioned to his mental vigor. To prove 
heresies supposititious, which is the chief object of his 
writings, catalogues of bishops are presented, who are 
assumed to have had the same authority, and to have 
held the same faith, from the days of the apostles. It 
had been usual to argue the genuineness of the gospel 
faith from the identity of the doctrines retained by the 
church throughout the world. But, howsoever plausi- 
bly the antiquity of doctrines might be argued, from 



a n«yTrt.^Xa:To?. Jerom. 

b Socrat. Hist. lib. vi, c. 9—13. 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 145 

the agreement of those churches, whose successive 
presidents, rtpo£olu>7si, had,long before the days of Epipha- 
nius, monopolized the title of bishops, the assumption 
nevertheless, that diocesan episcopacy had existed 
from the days of the apostles, and that there had been 
a sameness of power, influence, and even of name, 
was contrary to fact. Episcopal authority he identified 
with the regal and sacerdotal offices of Christ, and 
preposterously founded it upon the promise of God, 
that Chris fs throne should remain, that of his kingdom 
there should he no end, and that he should sit upon the throne 
of David, " which kingdom he transferred unto, and 
bestowed, together with the priesthood, upon his ser- 
vants, that is, the high-priests of the church univer- 
sal.'"^ 

Speaking of Aerius, who has already fallen under 
consideration, he says,^ that " He alleges, to the de- 
ception of himself and his hearers, that the apostle 
writes to presbyters and deacons, and not to bishops :" 
also, that to a bishop the apostle says, " Neglect not 
the grace that is in you, which you received by the 
hands of the presbytery." And afterwards, in another 
place, the apostle addresses "bishops and deacons," 
so that the same person was a bishop and a presbyter. 
And being ignorant of the series of trutk, and not con- 
versant in ancient histories, Aerius knew not that 
whilst the proclamation of the gospel was a new thing, 
the holy apostles wrote according to circumstances. 
Where, indeed, ^ there were bishops already constitu- 
ted, he wrote to bishops and deacons ; for the apostles 
could not immediately establish every thing in order. 
But there was need of presbyters and deacons, since 
by these two, the business of a church can be accom- 
plished. Where, therefore, no one was found worthy 
of an episcopate, the place remained without a bishop. 

c To 0ct<ri\uov Tov ActCiJ' /uiTit(/]iio-u; k^^i x^^tirct/uivos rots ietvrou 
J'ouXoii AfAA Tiju^x^n^u, (Tt/yK, Tour'iui Toic A g-^^ne^iv o^ I r»e KABohtKfie 
j»»x»«r;£tc. Hoer. 29. S. 4.' vide Heb. v. 6. vii. 16, 25. contra. 

tl Vide Sect xiii. 

e Stilling-fleet reads /a« for «8F. 

o 



146 THE PRIMITIVE eOTERNHEJrT 

But where there was necessity, and there were those 
who were worthy of the office of bishop, bishops were 
appointed, and the numbers being few, and none be- 
ing found among them to be constituted presbyters^ 
they were satisfied, in such places, with a bishop only. 
But without a deacon there could not be a bishop."* 

The first charge against Aerius was, that he taught 
that the apostle, in the third chapter of his first epistk 
to Timothy, in fact enumerates the qualifications, not 
of bishops of the fourth century, but of primitive pres^ 
byters and deacons. To which Epiphanius, in sub- 
stance, answers, that bishops and deacons, without 
presbyters, were ordained in some churches by reason 
of paucity of numbers. But if so, a single pastor and 
his deacons was one of the earliest conditions of the 
church, which is not strictly correct, as we have 
seen. 

The second was, that to prove the offices one, he 
represented Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 14) as ordained a 
bishop by the hands of a presbytery. To this the 
metropolitan answers, that Timothy was not to reprove 
an elder, nor hastily to receive an accusation against such ; 
which caution implied, that he had an authority supe- 
rior to that of presbyters, to whom no such directions 
were given. The truth was, that Timothy, ordained 
by a presbytery, was constituted by Paul an evange- 
fist, an extraordinary office, by virtue of which, hke 
an apostle, he planted churches, and ordained presby- 
ters or bishops, their ordination being the same. It 
has been shown, that as the Ephori had a Tt^otcfTco?, or 
president, who held the same office with his brethren, 
so in the presbyteiy of each church there was a presi- 
dent, r(e,ot(3T!oii ; consequently, as it was an inflexible rule 



f <tspsi Si Hi ictvrov rr\AVhV-^%Ai ovk ot<fiv o tuv ctx.o\ovBtct7 T«f 
a.\>iBuAC etyvoiio-dii kai la-lo^touc ^AQvlctJaic /un ivrv^ooVy OTtiioveyroc 
nou KUPvyfJiei.TOSy TTgoc Tct vn-QTriTrTovTaL lygoLcpiv ayiog ATroarroxat. 
Ottou /uitv nirav iTritrKOToi «<f«. KetTAa-Sivre?, 9y^st<j!tv iTi(K07roi xa.t 
J'lotx.ovotc ov yitg TrcLVTA ivQvs iiS'vv»Q>i(a.y 0/ etTrocrloxot KtirAO-THtroLi 
vpiiCvrteav yap tyivtlo Xi^'^-f **' S'tctKovuv, Sia yap ray Svt rovrter 
ret tKKK>i<rtA<r)tK.A (fuvavTO TrMi^ova-Beciy &c. Hoer. 75. S. 5, 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 147 

that but one church should be allowed in one city at a 
time, there could, of necessity, exist but one primus 
among the presbyters, however multiplied. This 
officer very naturally, therefore, in the second century 
and later, as converts multiplied, became more influen- 
tial, claimed higher authority, and monopolized the 
name of the bishop; a circumstance on which the 
policy of Constantino seized, and, accordingly, by can- 
ons of the council of Nice, avaihng himself of an im- 
aginary power in the church, he erected a hierarchy, 
which exists to this day. 

The third charge against Aerius was, that he said 
Paul considered (Titus i. 5 — 7) the same persons 
bishops and presbyters, caUing them indifferently by 
either name. To this he found no answer, except the 
assertion, that the order of bishops is to produce, by 
ordination, fathers in the church, or presbyters to 
produce sons by the washing of regeneration ; which 
is a mere begging of the question, and opposed by the 
fact of the ordination of Timothy himself by a presby- 
tery. Modern ingenuity has sometimes allowed the 
name bishop, in its appellative sense, to the presbyters 
of Titus ; but, as a name of office, to the ordainer. 
And this would be allowable, if a distinction of such 
offices could be shown by the Scriptures^ or in the 
apostolic age ; but the ruling elder was no more than 
a presbyter ; and to account him less, was an absur- 
dity of more modem invention. 

The argument just mentioned by Epiphanius, in 
support of an inequality between the bishop and pres- 
byter, " that one is an order generative of fathers, for 
it begets fathers in the church ; and that the other, 
unable to produce fathers, generates children in the 
church, by the washing of regeneration,"^^ has neither 
foundation in the Scriptures, nor in the history of the 
earliest ages of Christianity ; for we have seen how 



«X«\«0'ff. H/« TTATt^Af fxn SuiAfAiy}t ytYfAVi J'iA T«f TOW XSWTgJ TTA- 

XtyytytTtAc Ttx.tAy$yyx «r« tKK\n<ri<f. Hoer. 75) 84. 



148 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

episcopacy grew out of the " ruling elder." But in 
his day, though the bishop had all the powers of the 
presbyter, the presbyter was not allowed to do all that 
the bishop might ; being prohibited by the canons of 
councils, which were the supreme laws of the empire. 
Accordingly, Jerom, his more learned cotempoiary, 
commenting on the third chapter of Zephaniah, attri- 
butes to presbyters their original right of ordination : 
" Priests, who baptize and administer the eucharist, 
anoint with oil, impose hands, instruct catechumens, 
constitute Levites and other priests, have less reason 
to take offence at us explaining these things, or at the 
prophets foretelling them, than to ask of the Lord for- 
giveness."^ If it be objected that Jerom elsewhere 
said, " What does a bishop, ordination excepted, that 
a presbyter may not do V^^ the answer is obvious : 
Jerom, knowing that episcopal ordination was an ag- 
gression canonically adopted, confirmed by successive 
councils, and established by imperial authority, here 
speaks of ordination as it then was, and by no means 
of its original institution, or the mode of its primitive 
administration. He could not otherwise have afiirmed, 
as he has done, that bishops are above presbyters rather 
by custom^ than by the truth of a divine disposal; " magis^ 
consuetudine quam dispositionis Dominicas veritate 
presbyteris, esse majores." He also affirmed, an apos- 
tle had plainly taught, thai presbyters and bishops were 
the same, " eosdem esse presbyteros quos et episcopos;'* 
but " that afterwards it obtained that one was chosen,, 
who might preside over the rest, to prevent divi- 
sion, lest each one, collecting to himself, might rend 
the church of Christ."^ That there was but one ordi- 



h Sacerdotes qui dant baptismum et ad eucharistiam Domini 
imprecantur adventum, faciunt oleum chrismatis, manus imponunt, 
catechumenos erudiunt, Levitas et alios constituunt sacerdotes, 
non tarn indig-nentur nobis h?ec exponentibus et prophetis vaticin- 
antibus, quam Dominum deprecentur. Tom. v. p. 218. 

i *<Quidenim facit excepta ordinatione, episcopus, quod pres- 
byter non faciat." Tom. ii. p. 624. 

k "Quod autem poslea unus electus est qui cjeteris preponere- 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 149 

nation for the presbyter and bishop until the Cyprianic 
age, has been made sufficiently clear in the former 
sections ; but to estabhsh that Jerom excepted ordi- 
nations from the powers of presbyters, merely with re- 
gard to the laws and practice of his day, and not as 
either original or rightful, it is only necessary further 
to observe, that in the same letter he has shown, that 
" at Alexandria, from the evangelist Mark, even to the 
bishop Heraclius andDionysius (A. D.246) the presby- 
ters called him bishop, who was one chosen from them- 
selves, and placed in a higher grade, as an army makes 
a general, or deacons choose from themselves one, 
whom they know to be diligent, and call him an arch- 
deacon.'" A secondary ordination had not then ob- 
tained, but the elders selected one of their number, and 
denominating him bishop, they placed him in the chair, 
which Jerom describes by the suitable terms, in gradu 
excelsiori collocare : in consequence of which, he acted 
as bishop, or rather as arch-bishop. This act of the 
presbyters was without apostolical warrant, either in 
precept or example ; and certainly grew out of the 
appointment of a chairman, or n^oEffTfco?^ which was a 
merely optional appointment, by presbyters, of one of 
their number to a necessary duty. The comparison 
of a general, discovers the manner of the election ; that 
of the arch-deacon, excludes the idea of diversity in 
office ; and as he was still a deacon, the bishop was 
still a presbyter. 

tur, in schismatis remedlum factum est; ne unusquisque ad se tra- 
hens Christi ecclesiamrumperet." Epist. ad Evagrium. 

i Nam et Alexandrise a Marco evangelista usque ad Heraclum et 
Dionyskira episcopos, presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in 
excelsiori gradu coUocatum episcopum nominabant; quomodo si 
exercitus imperatorem faciat, aut diaconi eligant de se quem in- 
dustrium noverint et archi-diaconum vocent." Ibid. 

Also, Hilary the deacon, says, " Sed quia coeperunt sequentes 
presbyteri indigni inveniri ad primatus tenendos immutata est ratio, 
prospiciente concLlio, ut non ordo, sed meritum crearet episcopum. 
Sect. xii. And Augustin speaks of the superiority of the bishop as 
that which jam ecclesias usus obtinmi, &c. Isodore of Spain says, 
it was to prevent schisms by authority. It was, therefore, human^ 
and by no means primitive. 

o2 



150 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

The method adopted by Epiphanius to support, as 
original, an imaginary diversity in office, between 
bishops and presbyters, by supposing the modes of 
constituting the first churches to have been various ; 
that, in some churches, there were presbyters and 
deacons, in others bishops and deacons, was not 
founded in fact ; for the same identical persons were 
denominated presbyters and bishops : the commission 
was one, conferred by the same authority, in the same 
manner, and for the same ends. 

This passage has been brought to prove, that it was 
believed, in the days of Epiphanius, that episcopal su- 
periority over presbyters was established by the apos- 
tles. The imbecile arch-bishop of Cyprus, and his co- 
temporary, arch-bishop of Milan, whose piety was 
much greater than his knowledge, may have thus 
quieted their consciences, but the episcopal power was 
then well known to have been founded in aggression, 
and estabhshed by canons of councils and edicts of 
emperors. Yet in no instance were presbyters re- 
duced to the condition of laymen. 

The representation already given™ of the churches 
in Alexandria, while under their respective presbyters^ 
at the head of whom was the president of the original 
church, is fully confirmed by Epiphanius. " They 
say that he, (Arius,) a Lybian by descent, having be- 
come a presbyter in Alexandria, presided, 7t^oto7a7c>, 
over a church called BaucaHs. For as many churches 
as are of the CathoKc church at Alexandria, are un- 
der one arch-bishop; and over these, individually, 
presbyters are placed to administer to the ecclesiasti- 
cal exigences of the neighboring inhabitants."" 

This writer is deemed the principal witness in sup- 
port of the eight books, denominated the ApostoHcal 



m Sect. xiii. 

" ^Acriv Aulov Ai/Svv Tffl y'vei ?-v Axi^avSpna. J'i Trpia- /Svltpcv ytyetcTct 
Of Trs^mrctTO T«? iiiiiK>icrioi( t>i5 Buvx-ahiOCy cutw KAKcvfAivrt- Oa-at 

Vt^rKOTTQ]/ CVff-AI,X.a.t KdLTA iSldV TdLVTAl? iTrtli] CtyfAiVCt UCl TTpiS-f^vltfiOt 
J^iCLToiT iKKKHa-tUvloiCtg XP*^"-^ '^'^^ O/XiTO/OCDV- HOCI*. 69. S. 1. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 151 

Constitutions. He observes : " The Audians bring as 
proofs the Constitution of the Apostles, being indeed 
with many not accredited, nevertheless not to be re- 
jected ; for the vi^hole canonical order is comprehend- 
ed in it, and nothing hostile to the gospel, nor to the 
administration, canon, or faith of the church."*' Af- 
terwards he says, " The church observes the feast of 
the passover, appointed even from the apostles, in the 
Siaraltj, constiUdion, ^'C."p " And if it becomes us to 
recite that of the Stafaltj, constitution of the apostles, 
how, &c."i He also says: "With respect to the 
beard, the divine word and doctrine direct in the con- 
stitutions (ev taii Scat'alf tft) of the apostles, not to cor- 
rupt it," &C.'' That there existed a book in the days 
of Epiphanius, known by the name that has been men- 
tioned, is a fair inference from his expressions. The 
silence of Eusebius, and of Jerom, who was the friend 
of Epiphanius, avails nothing against this positive 
testimony ; but when compared with the suspicions, 
which Epiphanius more than once has expressed, the 
inference is just, that they allowed them not to be gen- 
uine. The circumstance, also, that he never mentions 
them in the catalogues of the sacred writings, evinces 
that he did not believe them to have been written by 
the apostles, whose inspiration extended to all they 
said and wrote, relative to the cause of Christ. 

They have been mentioned in no passage in the 
sacred Scriptures, by none of the fathers, councils, or 
ecclesiastical writers of the first century;^ although 
the things they contain must have been highly impor- 



o E/? TOUTO Si 01 cturoi AvSidLvoi ?rcipit<pifov(ri n-av ctTrocrTOKcev SidLJetPiy, 
ovcrcLv fxiv To/j TToKKdc iv dLf/.<^iXiitl(6y cfKKct cvK ctSoKifAov, 7rdL(7a. ycto ev 

Ctl/TJl y-itVOVlKit TSi^tS i/U<pifiirctly KAt CvSiV TTdL^H. >Ci^Apcty/U6V0V TUC TFKT- 

7ea)f, cftfi T«f i}CH.X>io-tci<r1i}i}ic StO}c»(rice(, n^i Kxvovocy kui 7rt(rhces. 

Hcer. 70. S. 10. 

P Ibid. S. 12. q Hoer. 75. S. 6. 

r Hoer. 80. S. 7. 

» Vide Sec. vii. ante? concerning- ** The Apostolical Tradition," 
referred to Hippolytus, which identifies itself with the 8th book of 
the Constitutions. 



152 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

tant on different occasions, particularly to Origen, 
Tertullian, and Cyprian. In the Constitutions* there 
is a direction to read the gospel of John, but that gos- 
pel was not written till after the deaths of Peter and 
Paul, and other apostles, in whose time and presence 
these Constitutions claim to have been written. Simon 
Magus is asserted in the Constitutions,'^ to have been 
baptized by Philip the apostle, but the history of the 
x\cts shows that it was by Philip the deacon or evan^ 
gelist. 

In the Constitutions,^ the apostle Peter is made to 
speak of Clement, as bishop and citizen of Rome, and 
also of the heretic Basilides, and others. But neither 
was Clement, bishop of Rome, nor Basilides known as 
a heretic in the life-time of Peter. 

They contain^"" many names of bishops ordained by 
Peter, Paul, Mark, and others, several of whom must 
have come into office after the days of the apostles. 

If those books in the Greek language, which are 
now called " The Apostohcal Constitutions, by Cle- 
ment," Ata-r'ayat -tov wyimv Arlo^'to^oiv 6ta KXTjfisvlos, be the 

same which Epiphanius approved, and the Trullian 
council afterwards rejected, they are an argument of 
his weakness and prejudices ; if they are different, 
they merit no regard, and, under either aspect, they 
become a miserable specimen of human depravity. 



t Lib. vi. c. 7. « Lib. vi. c. 7. 

vLib.vi,c.8, w Lib. vii. C.58, 



SECTION XVII 



i}ix)nysius, the Areopagite, was not the writer of the volumes, which hear his 
name; both things and temif are freely used in them, which existed not till 
centuries afterwards. They may have been written in the fourth or fifth cen- 
tury. Tliat the writer spoke falsely with respect to his age and time is cer- 
tain; but wrote with more than ordinary talent. By what writers presbyters 
were first accounted priests. The mode of ordination of a bishop in them 
differs from that in the apostolical constitutions. — John Chrysostom, his cha- 
racter. Correct as to the origin of episcopacy, but mistakes some Scriptures. 
— Isidore of Pelusium, a monk and layman; his letters laconic and severe. 
Uses iTrta-KOTros and TrposTlug in the same sense. 



DioNYSius, the Areopagite, who heard Paul at 
Athens,* has been deemed by Nicephorus, Gregory the 
great, Baronius, and many others, the writer of the 
books which bear his name. According to these, he 
received a Hberal education, and went into Egypt a 
little before the death of Christ, where he witnessed 
that eclipse of the sun which happened at the cruci- 
fixion, when the moon was full. The writer affirms, 
he was then in his twenty-fifth year ; he nevertheless 
appears to have survived Ignatius and Trajan. The 
genuineness of these writings, which have received 
the scholia of Maximus, and paraphrase of Pachyme- 
ras, in the Greek ; and the annotations of Corderius in 
Latin, has been a matter of dispute through the last 
twelve centuries. The reasons furnished by Baronius, 
wherefore they were not mentioned by Eusebius and 
Jerom, are plausible ; and his opinion, that the Cle- 
ment named in them was not Alexandrinus, is probable. 
But his answer to the objection of Theodorus, pre- 
served by Photius, that they exhibit an account of 

a Acts xvii. 34. 



154 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

those traditions which grew up in the church, by de- 
grees and at distant periods, is unsatisfactory. Nei- 
ther is it conceivable that these books, which so plain- 
ly assert the doctrine of the Trinity, should never have 
been cited in the disputes with the Arians, nor that 
Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine, who mentioned 
the Dionysius of Athens, should have concealed, if ac- 
quainted with, his writings. 

These works are probably those of a Platonistic 
Christian, mystically but argumentatively written, in 
good style, and with a free use of terms introduced by 
the disputants of the fourth century. Some have 
imagined that Dionysius, not the Areopagite convert- 
ed by Paul, but the patron of the Franks, who were 
different men, of different periods, was the author of 
these works. 

About the commencement of the fifth century we 
may with probability place them;^ and supposing 
them the works of an anonymous and disingenuous 
writer, yet was he a man of more than ordinary ta- 
lents and information ; they are entitled to notice there- 
fore, subject to these qualifications. 

Not a solitary instance has been observed, rejecting 
the captions, wherein this writer uses the words 
sTtiaxoTio^, Ti^EcjSvifs^o^, ^caxovoi, bishop, presbyter, or deacon; 
but instead of them, t^pa^;};?;? ts^tvi and unfov^yo^, govern- 
or of priests, priest and minister; t,£^a^zv? is a refinement 
upon a^x^se^ivi not found in the New Testament: ttpcvj 
never there occurs for an officer under the gospel, nor 
XfCT'oTj^'yoj for the deacon. 

The term priest does rarely, if in any instance, ap- 
pear for an officer in the church of Christ, in Clemens 
Rom., Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandr., Origen, 
Gregory Thaum., Lactantius, or in either of the Hila- 
rys, Irenseus infers from Levi's having no inheritance 
but the priesthood, that the apostles, forsaking the 



b Blondel and Lardner places them at A. D. 490. Peai-son, 330. 
S. Basnage and Daille, 520. Cave, 360. And others at different 
intermediate periods. 



6P CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 155 

fields, became the priests of God. Tertullian argues, 
that because Christ, is a high priest, those who are bap- 
tized into Christ, having put on Christ, are, according 
to the apocalypse, priests to God the Father. But nei- 
ther of these writers has usually adopted the word 
priest for presbyter in his writings. Minutius FeKx 
observes, that Christians had neither temples nor altars 
except their hearts, nor images, nor purple, nor digni- 
ties. Cyprian and Ambrose have used the terms priest 
and priesthood for the preaching office in the gospel, 
but do not ordinarily make the substitution. 

The principal and distinguishing character of the 
ordination of a bishop, u^a^xn^^ at the time of the writ- 
ing of these books, appears to have been, " the impo- 
sition of the Scriptures upon his head, which neither of 
the lower orders received.'"^ But it was at this pe- 
riod accompanied by laying on of hands, which nei- 
ther appears in the constitutions, nor in the Traditions 
of Hippolytus."^ The present form of the ordination 
of bishops fell into practice at some later period, by 
the mere omission of that which was the earliest but 
unauthorized ceremony, of. holding the Scriptures 
over the head of a presbyter, when appointed to pre- 
side. 

If imposition of hands is thought in our day to com- 
municate either gifts or graces, experience will prove 
the reverse. And in the ordination of the li^a^xn^t it 
was not originally a constituent. Ordination, even 
when rightful, confers neither knowledge nor purity ; 
and though at first followed by extraordinary gifts, it 
was no doubt intended as an exclusion of persons un- 
qualified from the offices of presbyter and deacon. 
Designations to presidency among presbyters were 
variously effected in different places. The duties were 
long merely parochial, even after the name of bishop 



tTrtOKTic ovK. i^^ovrav tcvto reel OK^UfAivcev Ta.yy.XT Kit. Vol. i. p. 364. 
d. Vide p. 64 ante. 



156 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

had been monopolized. We have already seen, that 
instead of a. jus divinum, diocesan bishops, as such, had 
no existence in the apostles* days : and the tardy ad- 
vancement tov^ards a secondary ordination shoves that 
they knew^ that their legitimate authority was only 
presbyterial, whilst their episcopal superiority, being 
founded on human appointment, was continued by cus- 
tom and supported by pohcy. Such is the history of 
the rt^oEtftwj, or ruling elder. 

It has been often affirmed in our own day, that 
bishops are successors to the apostoHc office. But the 
writer of these books thought otherwise, and probably 
wrote the sentiments which prevailed at the com- 
mencement of the fifth century. He represents dea- 
cons as directed "by priests, priests, by archbishops, 
archbishops by the apostles and the successors of the 
apostles."^ 

Neither in the Celestial nor Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 
nor in any other of the writings ascribed to Dionysius, 
the Areopagite, has there been found a word, a fact, 
or even a circumstance, which so much as excited the 
idea of a lay presbyter, or ruling elder, in the modern 
meaning of those terms. 

John of Constantinople was born at Antioch, of 
Christian parents, but lost his father in childhood. 
His first object was jurisprudence, which he exchang- 
ed for the study of the Scriptures. Becoming a read- 
er, he discharged the duties with such acceptance that 
he could escape episcopal ordination only by conceal- 
ment. He retired a few years, afterwards was or- 
dained deacon, then presbyter. His eloquence, upon 
the death of Nectarius, promoted him to the see of 
Constantinople, in 398. He was austere, choleric, dis- 
tant, arbitrary, and sometimes imprudent, yet pious. 
*" He died, in unjust banishment, in 407, at the age of 



e AtlTOve^yoiy /« rcvroic oi /fgs/f, n^ap^ett St tok iigiv(rty St to/? 
<(gag;^at/C oi a.Tro^'voKoii kai at ru>v ctTToaToKocv SictSo^ot. Vol. ii. p. 113. 
f Vide Socrat. Scholast.lib. vi. c. 2—19. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 157 

60. The name Chrysostom was conferred at a later 
period.^ 

In his homily on Ephes. iv. he places apostles first, 
prophets second, evangelists third; then follow pas- 
tors and teachers. These last he supposed to have 
been intrusted, some with a whole nation, and others 
to have been inferior. This archbishop of Constanti- 
nople appears to have made no claim to apostolical 
succession. Yet by virtue of canons of councils, he 
exercised the ecclesiastical power proportioned to the 
grade of his metropolis. 

Having recited 1 Tim. iii. 3 — 10, he observes: 
"Having spoken of bishops and characterized them, 
saying both what they should possess, and from what 
they should abstain, and omitting the order of presby- 
ters, Paul has passed over to the deacons. But why 
is this? Because there is not much difference. For 
these also in like manner have been set over the teach- 
ing and government of the church, and what things he 
has said concerning bishops, the same also he intended 
for presbyters ; for they have gained the ascendancy 
over them only in respect of ordaining, and of this 
thing also they appear to have robbed the presby- 
ters."^ The condition of the church could have then 
been better known to no one than to this primate; yet 
when discoursing on the Scriptures, he expressly al- 
lows government and doctrine to have been given 
equally and by the same means to presbyters and to 
bishops; that the latter had gained the ascendancy 
only in ordination, which they had injuriously taken 
from the presbyters; for such is the force of 7i%eov£X'ts(4', 
followed by an accusative. 

g ^guTov; T«v yXoorn-xv x,al to (rn:ofji.ct Juavvh? o Kavo-TAvrl- 
youTToKiO)? iTTiincoTro;. Photius, fol. 890. 

h Tt tfnTTon^ on ov ttoku to fxiTov, kai ya^ x,(tt civrot SiScLo-- 

KAhiAV il(TlV StvJ'lSily/iAiVOt KXl TTg^OTTCter l*V Ti)S IX-iCKna-lct?} KCtt fit TTi^t 

iTTKncoTreev UTriy rctvrcL Kctt Trtpt TrgfT^vngcev A^jmoTTii. tuv yetg 
^iipOTOYidv /xoviiv etureev A7st/3«/2/);t*i7/, jta/ tovto y.oiot Sokovo-j 
TrXiOYiKliiv roug 'Tfia-^UTrifovS' Vol. ix. p. 1574. 



158 THE PRIMITTIVE GOVERNMENT 

He appears to have rightly conceived of the iden- 
tity of the episcopal and presbyterial commission in 
their origin. Yet because by the canons of councils, 
which were the supreme law of the empire, an eccle- 
siastical authority had been erected in every city pro- 
portional in dignity and influence to the magnitude of 
the city, and the degree of civil power conferred upon 
it, this writer discerned that the cautious exercise of 
the power of ordination was a matter of the highest 
importance. For having spoken of a solemn charge 
given to Timothy, he observes, "After saying this, 
(Paul) introduced^ that which is above all things vital, 
and conduces to the preservation of the church, I mean 
ordination, and says, 'Lay hands suddenly on no 
man.' "^ 

It is obvious that bishops differed only in the power 
of ordination from presbyters, and had gained this af- 
ter the first times, yet he has expressed a sentiment on 
Phil. i. 1. somewhat different. If presbyters were in 
the days of Chrysostom equally as the bishops com- 
missioned to preach and govern, they were not lay 
presbyters. 

Upon 1 Tim. v. 17. Chrysostom plainly shows that 
the presbyters who ruled well were the same species 
of officers with those who laboured in word and doctrine, 
and observes, "That it conduces greatly to the edifica- 
tion of the church, that the 7i^os6T;oii;ii, ruling presby- 
ters, should be apt to teach."'^ The "double honour" 
he understood to mean not merely respect, but the pro- 
vision necessary to him who presides} He also thought 
the portion was to be double, either to enable him to 



i E/TOt TOvlo ilTTCeV TTitvlaV /UitXlO-TCt )COllgla>]uiOV HV iTTHyetyt, 

xcti fAcfKialct a-vviX^t t»v iKKKiigtoiv to tuv ^iiporovtciV. Hom. 
xvi. p. 1611. 

k Ylgoc iKKKucrictc oiKcJo/unv Kcti TTOKu avvliXil TO StSazTinovi eirett 
rovi Tr^cto-TCDTAC. p. 1605. 

1 T/,M«V ivlctuBu T«V Bi^CtTTilAY Xiyil TUV TCeV (tVAyiCAlCeV ^OpHylAV. 

Ibid. This comparison of the Tr^oio-ro); to him that leads in the 
choir, fitly intimates the parity of office. 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 159 

supply widows and deacons, or because he presided 
well. 

He understood the grace of God which was in Tim- 
othy by the imposition of his hands, (2 Tim. i. 6,) not 
to be his office to rule and preach, but the influence of 
the Holy Spirit. The imposition of the hands of the 
presbyters, he deems the giving of the commission, 
but strangely and gratuitously affirms that Paul " there 
speaks not of presbyter s^ hut of bishops} That there 
were no diocesan bishops, and that the same officers 
were indifferently called presbyters and bishops at that 
period, are certain. Yet this evasion was not worse 
than making Tt^za^vTH^tov^ presbytery, an office which 
Calvin favored, with some of the Latin fathers. The 
same arbitrary interpretation of elders, Ti^tc^vtse^ov^, he 
adopted on Titus i. 5, " he here means bishopsJ^'^ Jerom's 
views were contrary, and they are established by evi- 
dence. 

Referring to the passages in the letters to Timothy 
and Titus, he assigns his reason for such interpreta- 
tion in his first homily on the epistle to the Philippians. 
" To the co-bishops and deacons, w^hat is this ? Were 
there many bishops in one city ? By no means ; but 
he thus denominates the presbyters, for they had hith- 
erto held those names in common ; the bishop was 
also called a deacon," or minister."^ He afterwards 
justifies such commutation of names of office in an- 
cient times, by the custom, in his own day, of bishops 
writing to their " co-presbyters" and " deacons," and 
supposes that in former times each was, notwithstand- 
ing, distinguished by his proper official title. But how 
destitute of proof this assumption was, we have al- 
ready abundantly seen. Also, he acknowledges there 
had not been either deacons or presbyters prior to the 

I Ov «•«§< ;rg«9-/Sy7«ga» 9»5-f ey7aty9it etwitTre^i iTTivKa'arm. 1 Tim« 
ir. 14. 

m Tot/c iTriaxavrovi ivrstuQct ^atri. In loc. 

n 2uygT*o-xo»'o/c **< Siakovoh ri nrovlo ; ^T*f Toxeac ttokkoi %7riV' 
xofTOt i»<r«y ; ovS'ct/u.ui etWett roui <ar^ia-^v%pavs cvlas iKAXifft to]t yAg 
Tieti ticaiionovi TOts ofOfitxa-t x.Ai ^iakovos o iTriytcoTnic tKiytTO. In loc. 



160 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

appointment of Stephen and the other six, and has 
given it as his opinion on Acts vi.^ that the commis- 
sion was of a special nature, and though their duties 
were in the first instance ministerial, yet they were 
designed to be preachers, and did go forth as such. 

Isidore of Pelusium flourished in the first part of the 
fifth century, and having adopted the monastic life, 
he directed letters to men of various characters and 
in different stations, even to the emperor himself 
Some officiously reprove in pungent language ; others 
temperately answer the bishops, presbyters, and dea- 
cons, who sought his counsel. Being in no instance 
entire, they appear as extracts or abridgments, la- 
conically written. He avows the deliberate purpose 
of speaking freely, and causing men of no sensibility 
to blush for sin; and if he should thereby suffer, it 
would be with the prophets, apostles, and saints, an 
event desirable for him zcho zvas one of the multitude, 

SVC tcov TtoTJkc^v ovyfc.P. 



His numerous letters against simony show it to 
have been then a common vice. He charges it on 
Eusebius, the bishop of Pelusium, whom he admits to 
be Tt^oeatcoi, but denies that he, ts^aaOai, renders the spi- 
ritual service of priest. *i The early corruptions of the 
hierarchy are sufficiently evinced in his letters, which 
accord with the state of the church after the erection 
of diocesan episcopacy, and the general adoption of 
the canons of the council of Nice into practice. He 
uses the words sniaxoTtos, Tt^os^ifios, and i-s^svg, promiscu- 
ously for the same office ; but the last of these words 
most frequently both for bishop and presbyter. Nor 
has a presbyter been found in the volume, who was 
not a priest. Deacons and readers are often men- 
tioned, but neither arch-bishop nor patriarch has been 



o oQiv ovii Sia,ito\'U>Vi ovli -Trgia-Qulte^uiv oifxAi to o^ofxet avAi SifKcy 

iViyitpia-Ono-av uhXct iTnu^nvlo Auloig yiVia^Ai Svva/utv — uvlws ivix^i' 
gta-Bna-AV ovloi rov \oyov. Acts hom. xiv. 
p Page 664. 'i Page 326. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 161 

observed. Yet he repeatedly assigns a pre-eminence 
to Peter above the other apostles. This vi^ork, though 
of small importance in the history of the church, is, 
nevertheless, by its numerous, brief, and often singu- 
lar expositions of difficult passages in the Scriptures, 
rendered highly interesting. 



SECTION XYIIL 



Jerom ; his birth, education, places of residence, employment, learning, and 
death- — His opinion of the changes which had obtained in the offices and 
government of the church. — The ambition of presbyters produced the neces- 
sity of transferring much of their authority to a president in each church. — 
This was effected gradually, and by custom. — Jerom was contented with the 
church government established by canons of councils, which had the force of 
the supreme authority of the empire ; his denial of the primitive., or inspired 
right, was to take away the unjust defences of clerical improprieties. — His 
letter to Evagrius translated. — The church at Alexandria. — The expressions 
of Jerom on different occasions explained. — The importance of maintaining 
the succession of presiding presbyters, to exclude heretics ; but there was no 
re-ordination of presbyters till the Cyprianie age, or middle of the third 
century. 

Jerom was born in the upper confines of Dalmatia, 
before A. D. 345. After preparatory instructions at 
Stridon, and great progress in philology at Rome, he 
went into Gaul in quest of higher proficiency. Hav- 
ing returned from Rome, where he had been baptized, 
he proceeded to Antioch and Jerusalem. In Syria 
he devoted four years to the prosecution of oriental 
languages. 

At Antioch, he sided with Pauhnus, by advice from 
Damasus, bishop of Rome, and A. D. 375 consented 
to be ordained presbyter, but not to serve as such. 
Thus at liberty, he chose Bethlehem as his residence, 
whence he visited Gregory Nazianzen at Constanti- 
nople. In 382, coming to Rome, he w^as detained by 
Damasus, to whom his knowledge of languages, 
the Scriptures, and the world, seemed indispensa- 
ble. 

Upon the demise of the bishop of Rome, he retired 
to his beloved Bethlehem, with a number of recluses. 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 163 

After visiting Egypt, he spent the residue of a long life 
in retirement at Bethlehem v^ith his chosen friends, 
and died about 420. 

Devoted to study,* and unrivalled in learning,^ he 
shared the esteem of the greatest and best f but as he 
needed no emolument, he coveted no preferment in 
the church. He acquiesced in the aggrandizement 
and influence of the ecclesiastical establishment, be- 
cause he thought the exercise of power necessary to 
the government of the church ; but he would have the 
superior clergy to remember, that by the word of God 
they w^ere only presbyters, and that all higher author- 
ity was founded only on custom. 

In writing a translation and a commentary upon the 
Scriptures, which were to continue to remote genera- 
tions, we naturally expect his most matured judgment; 
and, therefore, begin with his observations on. Titus i. 
5, &c. " Let us carefully consider the words of the apos- 
tle : ' that you may appoint presbyters through the cities as 
I directed youf who, describing afterwards the charac- 
ter to be ordained a presbyter, and having observed, 
' If any he blameless, not a polygamist,'' &c. then sub- 
joined, ^for it becomes a bishop to he blameless, as a stew- 
ard of God A A presbyter is the same, therefore, as a 
bishop ; and before there arose, by the temptation of 
the devil, preferences in religion, and it was said 
among the people, ' I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Ce- 
phas,^ the churches w^ere governed by a common 

a " Totus semper in lectione, totus in libris est." Snip. Serv. 
p. 506. 

b "In omni scientia nemo audeat comparri.'* Id. 504. 

c " Plane cum boni omnes admirantur et diligunt." Id. 506. 

<1 *' Idem est erg-o presbyter, qui et episcopus, et antequam diaboli 
instinctu, studia in religione fierent, et diceretur in populis; Ego 
sum Paiili, ego JpoUo, ego autem Cepha : commiini presbyterorum 
concilio, ecclesise g-ubernabantur. Postquam vero unusquisque eos, 
quos baptizaverat, svios putabat, non esse Christi: in toto orbe de- 
cretum est ut unns de presbyteris electus superponeretur cseteris, 
ad quern omnis ecclesiae cura pertineret, et schismatum semina tol- 
lerentur. Hierom. Oper. torn. vi. p. 198. 



164 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

council of presbyters. But afterwards, every one es- 
teeming those whom he had baptized as his own, not 
Christ's, it was decreed, throughout the world, that 
one chosen from the presbyters should be placed above 
the rest, to whom the care of the whole church should 
belong, and the source of all discord be removed. If 
it be supposed this is not the sense of the Scriptures, 
but my own opinion, that bishop and presbyter are 
one, and that one is the name of age, the other of of- 
fice, read again the words of the apostle to the Phi- 
lippians — 'Paid and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to 
all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi, with 
the bishops and deacons, grace to you, and peace,'' &c. 
Philippi is a single city of Macedonia, and certainly 
there could not be in the one city many bishops, in 
the present meaning of the term. But because at that 
time they called the same persons bishops whom they 
called presbyters, on that account he spoke of bishops 
indifferently as of presbyters. This may still seem 
doubtful to some, unless it be proved by another testi- 
mony. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that 
when he had come to Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, and 
called the presbyters of that church, to whom he af- 
terwards said, among other things, 'Attend to your- 
selves, and to all the Jlock over which the Holy Spirit hath 
placed you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord, which he 
has gained by his blood.'' And here observe more par- 
ticularly, that inviting the presbyters of the one city, 
Ephesus, he afterwards calls the same bishops. If that 
epistle which is written to the Hebrews under the 
name of Paul, be received, there also the care of a 
church is equally divided among many; forasmuch 
as he writes to the people, ' Obey your leaders, and be in 
subjection, for they watch for your soids, as rendering an 
acccnint, lest they may do this with sorrow ; since this is to 
your advantage.' And Peter, who derived his name 
from the firmness of his faith, speaks in his epistle, 
saying, * Wherefore the presbyters among you I intreat, 
who am a co-presbyter, and witness of the sufferings of 
Christ, who am also an associate in the glotnj which is here- 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 165 

after to he revealed ; feed the Lord^s flock, which is among 
you, not from necessity but choice.^^ 

"^ These things are recorded, that we may show, 
that the ancient presbyters were the same as the bish- 
ops, but by Uttle and Httle, that the roots of dissentions 
might be torn up, the whole trouble was devolved on 
one. Wherefore, as presbyters know that they are 
subjected to him who shall have been placed over 
them by the custom of the church, so the bishops may 
know that they are greater than presbyters, rather by 
custom than by the verity of the Lord's appointment ; 
and that they ought to govern the church in common, 
imitating Moses, who, when he had it in his power to 
preside over the people of Israel alone, selected seven- 
ty, with whom he might judge the people."^ 

Jerom imputes the origin of episcopacy, not to the 
preference of one apostle to another, in the church of 
Corinth — / am of Paul, &c. ; for no one of them be- 
came superior in office to the rest ; but to the capri- 
cious favoritism of the people for particular presby- 
ters, and to the ambitious efforts of those officers, who 
aimed to promote themselves rather than to advance 
the cause of Christ, which, he asserts, produced the 
general consent, by little and little, to transfer the re- 
sponsibility of superintendence from the council of 
presbyters to a single presbyter in each church, for 
the prevention of divisions. From his expressions, 
" Before — it was said among the people, I am of Paul, 



e Jerom has omitted iTrt^moTrovvli; m 1 Pet. v. 2, but given it 
elsewhere. 

f Hasc propterea, ut ostenderemus apud veteres eosdem fuisse 
presbyteros quos et episcopos, paulatim vero ut dissensionum plan- 
taria evellerentur, ad unum omnem solicitudinem esse delatam. 
Sicut ez-g-o presbyteri sciunt, se ex ecclesi3e consuetudine ei, qui 
sibi praepositus fuerit, esse subjectos; ita episcopi noverint, se 
mag-is consuetudine quam dispositionis dominicse veritate, presby- 
teris esse majores, et in commune debere ecclesiam reg-ere imitan- 
tes Moysen: qui cum haberet in potestate solus prsesse populo Is- 
rael, septuag-inta elegit cum quibus populum judicaret. Tom. vi. 
p. 199. 

g Tom. vi. p. 198. 



1 66 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

and I of Apollos," &c. which obtained at Corinth many 
years before the death of Paul, it has been inferred 
that the authority of the presbyteries was devolved 
on bishops before the deaths of the apostles. But this 
quotation was a mere accommodation of Scripture 
language to the evils of after times ; for he speaks not 
of the transfer of authority from many apostles to one, 
but of that of the presbyters of a church to one of their 
number. When Clement wrote his first letter to the 
Corinthians, which all acknowledge genuine, they had 
no bishop, and this was a little before the death of the 
last apostle. It has been also justly answered to the 
strange inference, that the date of the letter to the Co- 
rinthians, which has been thus assigned as the time of 
the introduction of episcopacy, was prior to the call at 
Miletus, to the letter to the Philippians, to the epistle 
to the Hebrews, and to the first epistle of Peter ; and 
that Jerom would not have placed the introduction of 
episcopacy at the period of the schism at Corinth, and 
then proceeded to the argument for original presbyte- 
rial parity from four different facts, all of which must 
have occurred subsequently to the time which he had 
just before assigned as the termination of such 
equality among presbyters. Had Jerom said, that be- 
cause of this schism at Coriath, it was decreed in all 
the world to devolve the power on one, the four in- 
stances which immediately follow, of the identity of 
the presbyterial and episcopal office, would have been 
palpable contradictions of himself. Equally futile is 
the position, that since there were neither synods nor 
councils to pass the decree which he mentions, Jerom 
must have supposed it was ordained by the apostles. 
His language fairly implies, that the decree was the 
general adoption of the expedient, of the responsibihty 
of one presbyter, by the churches throughout the world; 
which agrees with his representation of this change as 
a custom, which came on gradually till it universally 
prevailed. Jerom's legitimate inference of original 
parity, from the identity of the commission, qualifica- 
tions, and duties, and the promiscuous use of the 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 167 

names of presbyter and bishop, in the apostolic times, 
excludes also the idea of an inferior order of presby- 
ters in his day ; for otherwise his terms should have 
been restricted. The sameness of order in the apos- 
tolic age, which Titus was to estabHsh in all the cities 
of Crete, is clearly evinced to have then existed at 
Philippi, Ephesus, Pontus, and at the place of the desti- 
nation of the letter to the Hebrews ; and it may be 
presumed, until an exception can be shown, in all 
other Christian churches. The opposition of the 
terms bishop and deacon is obvious, but none exists 
between the words bishop and presbyter, which may 
well signify the same officer. And the omission of 
presbyters in Phil. i. 1, and of their qualifications in 
other letters, where those of bishops are given ; the 
promiscuous use of the terms, as well as the historical 
fact of the accumulation of the power of the rt^osatas, 
or ruling elder by general consent, all show that they 
were at first identically the same. The inference of 
Jerom, that since this preference of one was by the 
custom of the church, and not by the appointment of 
the Lord, that therefore the bishops ought to govern 
in common with the presbyters, was not only an ap- 
peal to their consciences, but the clear expression of 
the opinion of this learned man, that episcopal pre-emi- 
nence was destitute of apostolical and Scriptural 
foundation. From the words "imitating Moses, who, 
when he had it in his power to preside over the peo- 
ple alone, selected seventy with whom he might 
judge the people," an inconclusive argument has been 
elicited for a divine right in bishops, because Moses 
had such right. But that bishops, otherwise than as 
presbyters, are destitute of such right, is the very 
thing which Jerom has proved from their Scriptural 
identity, and confirmed by fact; founding modern 
episcopacy on custom and general consent. He can, 
consistently with himself, have meant no more by the 
example of Moses, than that, if the Jewish lawgiver, 
whose commission was immediately from God, so con- 
descended in dividing his power, a fortiori bishops 



188 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

should remember the original administration, and that 
their pre-eminence was merely estabhshed by custom. 

That Jerom was favorable to the three orders of 
clergy existing in his day, often appears in his works : 
so when he speaks of deacons as in the third degree, 
he alludes to their condition when he wrote ; and so 
far was he from desiring a change, that he affirmed, 
" The safety of the church depended upon the dignity 
of the high-priest." But that its original condition, 
when left by the apostles, was otherwise, he knew and 
has shown. Against this, his catalogue of illustrious 
writers is cited, where James, the author of the epis- 
tle, is said to have been ordained (ordinatus) bishop of 
Jerusalem by the apostles. The genuineness of this pas- 
sage has been often disputed, and standing among 
numerous interpolations, it is probably a corruption. 
But if received, it concludes nothing, because bishop 
may be taken in its appellative sense, overseer, and 
there may have been an understanding among the 
apostles that he should remain there, having, with the 
presbyters, the oversight of that important station. 
But if the apostle James was ordained a bishop by the 
other apostles, it v/as a mere nullity, if the offices be 
the same ; if diverse, the apostles either exalted him 
to a higher office, for which they had no power ; or 
they degraded him to an inferior, without a fault, and 
for no purpose which he might not effect as an apos- 
tle.^ Also, if Jerom said this, he contradicted him- 
self. 

His letter to Evagrius, treating of the same subject, 
may be thus rendered : " We read in Isaiah, ' A fool 
will utter foolish things.' I hear that a certain person 

h That James the son of Zebedee, and James the son of Alpheus, 
were the two apostles, and that James the less here intended, was 
not such, is an opinion without credible proof, and opposed at 
much leng'th by Jerom. But that there were two only, and that 
James the less, the Lord's brother, was an apostle, and the same 
that is called the son of Alpheus, and James the just, has been the 
general opinion, and received by the church in every ag-e. Avo 
St yiyovdo-iv Jako^oi h; o Sticntos — ijipos cTs o KitPcLlojunhtf, — Clem. 
Alexand. Vide Gal. i. 19. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 169 

has broken out into such a frenzy, as that he would 
honor deacons more than presbyters, that is, than 
bishops. For, since the apostle explicitly teaches 
that presbyters and bishops were the same, what ca- 
lamity^ has this servitor of tables and widows fallen 
under, that, swollen with self-importance, he may ex- 
alt himself above those, at whose prayers the body is 
dispensed and the blood of Christ. Do you ask proof? 
Hear the testimony ; ' Paul and Timothy, servants of 
Jesus Christ, to all saints in Chist Jesus who are at Phi- 
lippi, with the bishops and deacons,^ Do you wish also 
another sample 1 Paul thus speaks in the Acts of the 
Apostles, to the priests of a single church : ' Be atten- 
tive to yourselves and to the whole Jiock over which the Holy 
Spirit has placed {you) bishops, that you might govern the 
church of the Lord, which he has acquired by his bloodJ 
And lest any one may contentiously urge, that many 
bishops w^ere in the same church, hear also another 
testimony, in which it is most clearly evinced that 
the bishop and the presbyter were the same : ' For 
this object I left you in Crete, that you might redress what 
was defective, that you might appoint presbyters through 
the cities, as I also gave you in charge. If any one is with- 
out blame, the husband of one wife, having faithful chil- 
dren, not accused of or not subject to excess ; for it becomes 
a bishop, as a steward of God, to be above censure.^ And 
to Timothy : ' JYeglect not the grace that is in you, which 
was given by prophecy, by the imposition of the hands of a 
presbytery.^ And Peter, also, in his first epistle, says : 
* The presbyters among you, I beseech, who am a co-presby- 
ter, and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker 
of the future glory which is to be revealed, to govern the flock 
of Christ, and to oversee it, not from necessity, but willingly 
before God.^ Which is more plainly called in the 
Greek, tTtLaxorcovvlts^ superintending ; whence the name 
bishop is derived. Do the testimonies of such men 
appear to you small ? Let the evangelical trumpet 
sound, the son of thunder, whom Jesus greatly loved, 

i Quid al. guts patiatur, kc. 

Q 



170 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

who drank from the breast of the Saviour streams of 

doctrines : ' The presbyter to the elect lady and her chil- 
dren, whom I love in the truth.'' And in another letter, 
* The presbyter to the most kind Gains, whom I love in the 
truth.'' ^ But that afterwards one was selected who 
might be set over the rest, was done in prevention of 
schisms, lest every one, drawing to himself, should 
rend the church. For also at Alexandria, from the 
evangelist Mark even to the bishops Heraclas and 
Dionysius, the presbyters always named one, chosen 
from themselves, and placed in a higher grade, bishop. 
In the same manner as if an army should make a com- 
mander, or deacons choose from themselves one 
whom they may have known to be industrious, and 
call him the arch-deacon. For what does a bishop 
accomplish, ordination excepted, that a presbyter may 
not do 1 The church of the city of Rome, and that of 
the whole world, are not to be esteemed different. 
Gaul and Britain, and Africa and Persia, and the East 
and India, and all the barbarians, worship the same 
Christ, and observe the same rule of faith. If the rea- 
son be sought, the world is greater than a city. 
Wherever there shall be a bishop, whether at Rome, 
or Gubio, or Constantinople, or Reggio, or Alexan- 
dria, or Tanes, he is of the same importance and of 
the same priesthood. ^ Neither the influence of riches, 
nor the humility of poverty, renders him a greater or 
an inferior bishop. Moreover, they are all successors 
of the apostles. But you ask. How is it that at Rome 

k Quod autem postea unus electus est, qui cseteris proponeretur, 
in schismatis remedium factum est: ne unusquisque ad se trahens 
Christi ecclesiam mmperet. Nam et Alexandrix a Marco evange- 
lista usque ad Heraclam etDlonysium episcopos, presbyteri semper 
unum ex se electum, in excelsiori gradu collocatum, episcopum 
nominabant: quomodo si exercitus imperatorem faciat aut diaconi 
elig-ant de se, quern industrium noverint et archidiaconum vocent 
Quid enim facit, excepta ordinatione, episcopus, quod presbyter 
non faciat ? Tom. i. p. 264. ^ ^ 

1 Potentia divitiarum, et paupertatis humilitas, vel sublimiorem 
vel inferiorem episcopum non facit. C3eterum omnes apostolorum 
successores sunt. Idem. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 171 

a presbyter is ordained upon the recommendation of 
a deacon? Why do you propose to me the custom of 
a single city ? Why do you defend a rare occurrence, 
from which disrespect has arisen unto the laws of the 
church ? The value of every thing is enhanced by 
scarcity. Pennyroyal is more precious in India than 
pepper. Their fewness has rendered the deacons 
honorable ; their multitude has depreciated the im- 
portance of presbyters. Nevertheless, even in the 
church at Rome, presbyters sit, whilst deacons are 
standing ; yet mischief increasing by degrees, I have 
seen, in the absence of a bishop, a deacon sit among 
the presbyters, and in domestic entertainments pro- 
nounce benedictions on the presbyters. Let them 
learn, who do this, that they act incorrectly, and let 
them hear the apostles : * It is unfit that, leaving the 
word of God, we should serve tables,^ They should know 
for what purpose deacons were constituted. They 
may read the Acts of the Apostles, and remember 
their first condition. Presbyter is a name of age, 
bishop of dignity. Accordingly, Titus and Timothy 
received directions concerning the ordination of a 
bishop and of a deacon ; concerning presbyters, total 
silence is observed, because the presbyter is compre- 
hended in the bishop. He that is promoted is ad- 
vanced from the less to the greater. Either, therefore, 
out of a presbyter let the deacon be ordained, that the 
presbyter may be shown to be inferior to the deacon, 
unto whose grade he is advanced from that which is 
small ; or if out of a deacon a presbyter be ordained, 
he should know, that though he be inferior in salary, 
he is greater in priesthood. ™And seeing we know 
that the apostohcal traditions were taken from the Old 
Testament, what Aaron and his sons, and the Levites 



^ Et ut sciamas traditiones apostollcas sumptas de Veteri Testa- 
mento, quod Aaron et filii ejus, atque Levitse in templo fuerunt, 
hoc sibi episcopi et presbyteri, et diaconi vindicent in ecclesia. 
Ibid. 



172 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

were in the temple, this let bishops, and presbyters, 
and deacons claim to themselves in the church." 

In no city was planted by the apostles more than 
one church ; this the Scriptural and subsequent his- 
tory of the church demonstrates. A presbytery ex- 
isted in every organized church, and no more in a city: 
consequently, one presiding presbyter, who afterwards, 
by custom, for prevention of schisms, became the 
bishop, belonged to each church, and consequently to 
every city in the age of Jerom. At the period of the 
forgeries, which bear the name of the pious Ignatius, 
parochial episcopacy prevailed ; but they betray igno- 
rance, who affirm that presbyters were then laymen, 
or that such a grade is an essential characteristic of 
the Presbyterian church. Seven deacons were ap- 
pointed at Jerusalem; no more were ordained at 
Rome. This paucity, and the nature of their duties,, 
created popularity, whilst the number of presbyters 
diminished their importance. DissentiDns arose be- 
tween these orders, and Augustine has recorded an 
appeal to the bishop of that metropoHs, to decide be- 
tween them. Probably this letter was sought and 
given on that occasion ; or it may have been in de- 
fence of the bishop of Rome, who was persecuted by 
a deacon of high rank. Though a presbyter, Jerom 
never officiated as such, except in private lectures on 
parts of the Scriptures, but even these were scarcely 
delivered by him as an officer, either at Rome or 
Bethlehem. 

This letter could not have been the offspring of 
jealousy, but of regard to the truth. His language is 
temperate, his arguments rational, and his authorities 
the Scriptures ; to these custom and expediency are 
subordinated — canons he does not even name. From 
the practice here mentioned of the church at Alexan- 
dria, after the death of Mark the evangelist, the exist- 
ence of episcopacy from that period, which was apos- 
tohc, has been inferred. There could have been little 
difference between the state of things in apostolic 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 173 

times, and at the death of Mark. In both, the presby- 
teries had their ruling elders or presidents ; upon them 
custom, founded on consent, devolved the responsi- 
bihty and superintendency of the presbytery, of which 
the church at Alexandria furnished a proof. Jerom 
shov^^s this was a human innovation; because that 
presbyter and bishop were originally the same office, 
and so regarded by Paul, Peter, and John ; also, by 
the churches of Philippi, Ephesus, those of Crete, and 
other places ; each of which had been governed by 
the common council of its own presbytery. The elec- 
tion of such a presiding presbyter at Alexandria, he 
does not refer either to antecedent apostolic precept 
or example, but expressly to the presbyters themselves, 
whose election constituted the only disparity. Mark 
held the high office of evangelist, and, as such, might 
preside in any church, especially of his own planting. 
If he supplied the place of a president, in advanced 
age, after his death the presbytery of Alexandria, 
acting as others, must have chosen one permanently, 
the growth of whose power afterwards kept pace 
with the customs of other churches. The assertion of 
Eutychius, A. D. 950, that the presbyters in Alexan- 
dria from the first ordained such bishop, is incredible. 
Re-ordination began in the Cyprianic age, and in Je- 
rom's day was performed only by bishops ; so also 
was the ordination of presbyters. "What does a 
bishop, ordination excepted, that a presbyter may not 
do ?" The first of these verbs denoted a present and 
continuous acting ; the second is of the same sort, but 
potential, and consequently expressing a future. To 
imagine this spoken by Jerom of early times, is, there- 
fore, obviously incorrect. When he wrote, every one 
knew that for presbyters to ordain was contrary to 
the laws and canons of the church ; his proof of their 
original identity, from the fact that presbyters might 
now perform all other duties of bishops, required the 
exception. But every mind perceives that the estab- 
lishment of the identity destroyed the originality and 
2^ 



174 THE PRIMITIVE GOVEENMENT 

authority of the exception. Any other interpretation 
would unnerve his argument, produce self-contradic- 
tion, and conflict with the fact that Timothy was or- 
dained by a presbytery. The sameness of the office 
could, therefore, never be reconciled with episcopal 
ordination as in his day. The confession of such an 
exception, if it referred to apostolical times, imme- 
diately after showing that presbyters of themselves 
chose, and placed in his seat, and denominated the 
person the bishop of Alexandria, would betray weak- 
ness in the extreme. Although the presbyters of Al- 
exandria officiated in their respective places in ihe 
city, they were rather a parish than a diocess, being 
one church, whereof they, with their bishop, who was 
one of themselves, constituted the presbytery — not a 
church session of mute elders — every presbyter had 
his place of preaching in Alexandria. Had the pres- 
byters, so chosen to preside, been ordained by presid- 
ing presbyters of cities in Palestine or Syria, instead 
of being an example of the introduction of the custom 
of devolving the responsibility and oversight which 
had belonged to the presbytery on one of their num- 
ber, it would have proved the reverse, and contradict- 
ed the position that presbyter and bishop denoted at 
first the same office. 

It has been strangely alleged, that in the last sen- 
tence of the letter to Evagrius, it is plainly asserted 
not only " that the hierarchy of the church is founded 
on apostolic tradition, but also that the apostles had 
the model of the temple in their view, and raised their 
plan of church government according to the Jewish 
economy." The object of this letter was to show that 
presbyters were superior to deacons ; and one ground 
of the argument was, that presbyters were originally 
bishops, and that the difference between them in Je- 
rom's days had arisen by degrees, being founded 
merely on the custom of the church, and having for 
its object the prevention of divisions. He must, there- 
fore, have designed no contrast in these words, be- 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 175 

tween bishops and presbyters, but between them as 
one order and deacons as the other. In Hke manner, 
Aaron and his sons were the same priesthood, and 
superior to the Levites, who served under them. No 
argument can be fairly drawn from the terms " apos- 
tolical tradition,^'' to make him inconsistent with his own 
position, that the change arose from the custom of the 
church. For writing of Lent, he calls it an " apostoli- 
cal traditio7i" in a letter to Marcella.'^ And against 
the Luciferians, he calls it the custom of the church." 
He has also shown, in so many words, that apostolic 
was synonymously used for that which was anciently 
adopted by the church.? 

When Jerom speaks of bishops as successors of the 
apostles, he cannot mean, as some imagine, that they, in 
the modern sense, immediately succeeded them ; be- 
cause he has argued at much length and conclusively, 
that the office was the same with that of presbyters in 
the days of the apostles, and that the superiority they 
possessed in his day had arisen by the custom of the 
church, by little and little, to prevent schism. Also 
the word successor is not comparative ; it measures not 
the extent of power, but merely points out those ordi- 
nary officers who followed the apostles in the govern- 
ment and instruction of the churches. The fanciful 
idea of episcopal successorship by divine right was repug- 
nant to the views of Jerom, who has unanswerably 
refuted it by numerous Scriptural testimonies, and 
demonstrated his meaning and consistency by assert- 
ing equally of presbyters, that they were successors 
to the degree of the apostles.i Iraeneus had set him 
examples of each long before. 

n Secundum traditionem apostolorum — jejunamus. Tom. ii. 
p. 414. 

o Ex quo animadvertis nos ecclesise consuetudinem sequi. Tom. 
ii. p. 424. 

P Unaquseque provincia prseceptu majoruniy leges apostolicas 
arbitretur. Tom. i. p. 194. 

q Qui apostolico gradui succedentes. Jerom, ad Heliodor. 
Tom. i. p. 1. 



176 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

As numbers increased, the presbyters served differ- 
ent assemblies in the same city or parish, but still 
belonged to one bench, over v^hich there was in each 
church a Tt^osalco? ox presiding presbyter. These presi- 
dents WQTQ afterv^ards enumerated as successors from 
the first planting of the churches. Thus not only were 
heretics excluded, but their innovations rejected, by 
demanding an uninterrupted succession of teachers of 
their tenets. But that these successors of the apostles 
inherited their gifts, authority, or influence, or had 
any other ordination than that of their co-presbyters, 
prior to the Cyprianic age, has never been shown to 
us by credible testimony. His defence of presbyters 
against deacons, his use of the word presbyter with- 
out the imaginary distinction of preaching and lay 
elders, and his universal silence with regard to the 
latter, evince that Jerom had no idea of lay presbyters. 
He is, therefore, another witness against that novel 
order, of which not a vestige has been found in the 
first four centuries. 



SECTION XIX 



Augustine's birth, profession, immorality, Manich<Bism, and conversion. — 
Approved the canonical hierarchy. — Called the innovations titular distinc- 
tions. — Though a bishop confessed his inferiority to Jercm, who was a 
presbyter. Seniores were not presbyters, in his letters, but aged Christians. — 
Synesius ; his writings show that the church was governed in Cyrene ac- 
cording to the canons of the council of Nice. — Sulpicius Severus testifies 
of a moral declension in the church ; and the fact thai a layman was made 
a bishop without censure. 

AuRELius AiTGusTiJfus was born at Tagaste, in Nu- 
midia, A. D. 354 ; taught rhetoric at Cailhage, Rome, 
and Milan ; and being of dissolute morals, adopted the 
error of the Manichees. Convinced by Ambrose, he 
became a Christian in his thirty -second year, and re- 
turned from Milan to his native city. Five years af- 
terwards he was ordained presbyter by Valerius, at 
Hippo Regius ; and in 395 was received into the epis- 
copate. Of his contemporaries, Ambrose died in the 
fourth century ; Chrysostom and Jerom in the fifth ; 
the former he survived more than twenty, and the 
latter about ten years. These with Nonnus, Syne- 
sius, Sulpicius Severus, and Paulinus, were deemed 
orthodox writers ; Socrates the historian, and Pela- 
gius,were of the opposite character. He died in Hip- 
po, in 430, whilst it was besieged by the Vandals. 
His works are contained usually in ten tomes and a 
supplement. His confessions constitute an edifying 
history of his early life, and of his views at different 
periods. His retractations should be consulted with 
the parts of his works which they correct. His know- 
ledge of the Greek, deemed by himself defective, was 
obviously competent ; but he excelled in the Latin Ian- 



178 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

guage, and could not have been ignorant of the Pu- 
nic. His comparative proficiency in theology was 
unusual for so late a convert. Possessing a mascu- 
line understanding, his decisions were often too 
prompt, but readily abandoned for the sake of the 
truth. His opinions were in high repute, and of great 
utility at the Reformation, when also some of his er- 
rors were adopted. In ecclesiastical government, he 
professed conformity to the canons and customs of 
the church. Thus when he nominated Eradius the 
presbyter, to become his successor, and obtained the 
vote of the people, he observed, that he had been or- 
dained bishop in the life-time of Valerius, contrary to 
a canon of the council of Nice, but of which neither 
of them had had knowledge ; the reprehension he had 
received on that occasion, he wished Eradius to es- 
cape ; but the vote he caused to be recorded and sub- 
scribed by the people, and introduced the young man 
into a portion of his labors.* 

That the office of bishop was founded upon the cus- 
tom of the church, he acknowledges in a letter to Je- 
rom : " I intreat you to correct me faithfully when 
you see I need it ; for although, according to the titular 
distinctions which the custom of the church hath introduced, 
the office of bishop may be greater than an eldership, 
nevertheless, in many respects, Augustine is inferior 
to Jerom."^ To suppose he meant hereby the aban- 
donment of a known Scriptural superiority, and the 
depreciation of a divine right into a mere titular pre- 
eminence, is an impeachment of the piety of Augus- 
tine. The language, jam ecclesice usus ohtinuit, is a plain 
acknowledgment, that episcopal superiority was not 
original, but merely founded on the custom of the 

ft Tom. ii. p. 515. Epist. 110. 

^ — *• Rog-o ut me fidentur corrigas, ubi mlhi hoc opus esse per- 
spexeris. Quanquam enim secundum honorum vocabula, quse 
jam ecdesia tisus obiinuii, episcopatus presbyterus major sit, ta- 
men in multis rebus Augustinus Hieronymo minor est." Tom. ii. 
Epist. ad Hieron. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 179 

church, and no prevention of the precedence due to 
Jerom for his distinguished learning and knowledge. 
Had Augustine's compliment been made at the expense 
of truth, it would have been also an imputation of ig- 
norance and vanity to Jerom. That canonical dis- 
tinctions originated in custom, and were ratified 
by mere human authority, was then know^n; and 
when truth demanded from the bishop an acknow- 
ledgment of his personal inferiority to the presbyter, 
it w^as fit, also, that he should wave the distinction 
which custom had introduced in opposition to the 
word of God. 

He has, on the question. Whether those charged 
with false doctrines be in the church or not, discarded 
the authority of the most venerable of the fathers, and 
the obligation of the decrees of councils, and affirmed 
that the question can be decided by the sacred Scrip- 
tures alone.*^ But on the order of the church he sided 
wdth Jerom, and, like him, acquiesced in its govern- 
ment, apprehending no possible advantage from op- 
posing the customs of the church, the canons of coun- 
cils, and the laws of the empire. The ecclesiastical 
administration was not then a matter of controversy. 
" The bishops, w^ho are this day throughout the world, 
whence sprung they ? The church herself calls them 
fathers ; she has borne them, and she has placed them 
in the seats of the fathers.'"^ He acted as a Christian 
should do ; the church of Christ was then, and still is 
such, though the original form of government may 
not exist in the world. The investigation of truth is 
rarely unimportant; but on these points necessary 
only, w^hen error would unchurch those w^hom God 
accepts ; or where primitive truth is denied, and its 
advocates arraigned by the ignorant. 



c De unitate ecclesiae. Chap. xix. p. 5. 

^ "Hodie, episcopi qui sunt per totum mundum, unde nati 
s\int ? Ipsa ecclesia patres lllos appellat, ipsa illos ^enuiC, et ipsa 
illos constituit in sedibus patrum." Tom. viii. p. 417. 



I 80 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

An argument has been attempted for lay presbyters 
from an epistle w^hich Augustine w^rote to his church 
at Hippo,^ commencing w^ith these words : " Dilec- 
tissimis fratribus, clero, senioribus et universas plebi 
ecclesi^e Hipponenisis." — To the brethren greatly beloved, 
the clergy/ the elders, " and all the people of the church 
at Hippo." The next epistle is directed to the same 
church, and begins with " Dilectissimis fratribus, 
conclericis, et universae plebi." — To the brethren most 
beloved, fellow clergymen, and all the people, &c. These 
two letters were written to the same church, conse- 
quently the same officers and people were addressed 
in both. The two first terms, ^^ dilectissimis fratribus," 
occurring in each salutation, may have been intended 
of all the worshippers, or of the clergy only. Clero 
the clergy, in the one epistle, corresponds to cojiclericis, 
fellow clergymen, in the other, senioribus, the elders, ex- 
pressed in the first, are included in the universcB plebi 
of the second. The conclericis of the second being 
precisely equivalent to the clero of the first, of which 
the senioribus being expressed, constituted no part, 
there elders could not have been implied in the con- 
clericis. If they were not of the clergy, they were not 
officers ; because had they been such, they must have 
been treated with disrespect, either by a total omis- 
sion, or the including of them in the plebi. If they 
were not officers, the term senioribus was taken appel- 
latively, in that letter in which it occurs, and meant 
nothing more than the aged men of the congregation, 
who have been often thus distinguished, because of 
their experience and gravity ; but are nevertheless 
really a part of the plebs, or common people. This 
interpretation is also corroborated by the circum- 
stance, that senioribus, not presbyteris, is used ; the latter 
being the ordinary official term, and the other gene- 
rally appellative; a discrimination which, though 



e Tom. ii. p, 661. Eplst 139. 

f Clerus has been improperly translated a '' clergyman.' 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 181 

neglected by Tertullian and Cyprian, is carefully fol- 
lowed by Optatus and Augustine, who observes, 
" Omnis senex etiam presbyter, non omnis presbyter 
etiam senex."§^ — Ever-y old man is an elder, not every 
elder also an old man. These seniores, who sometimes 
occur in the Christian WTiters of Africa, are in no 
instance to be deemed of the clergy, they administered 
no ordinances, never sat as presbyters, and neither 
excommunicated nor restored ; but w^ere placed after 
the deacons, and consulted merely for their know- 
ledge and prudence, or introduced because of their 
interest.'' The captions of these letters of Augustine 
are conclusive proof, that the seniores of whom he 
speaks w^ere not clerical, and so not even on an 
equality w^th deacons, and consequently, upon no con- 
struction, the Ti^osaliols?, ruling ipreshyters of the New 
Testament, or any officers in the gospel churches. 
That these were never such in the churches of Africa, 
may be fairly also inferred from the omission of them, 
both in the enumeration of the officers of a particular 
church,^ and in the catalogues given in the councils 
of Carthage, where they are thus enumerated : bishop, 
presbyter, deacon, subdeacon, acolyth, exorcist, reader, door- 
keeper, and chorister.^ If such a class of officers as 
seniores had existed next after the deacons, they must 

g Tom. iv. p. 99. 

1» Vitringa (de Synag-. 115) has written fully on this subject, 
and denies that the seniores plebis were either cr^icr/Bule^ci TuanKXn- 
ariAi, or TT^ci^lcelic 7r^i(r/2i/]igci ; and says, they were merely yigovli?, 
and no part of the ecclesiastical body to whom the care and the 
ministry of the church were delivered. Casanbon distingxiishes 
between seniores urhium and seniores ecclesiarum ,- these last, he 
says, were quadamtenus ecdesiastici, yet laid and gimrdiani iemplo- 
rum. Bingham (lib. ii. c. 19) considers the seniores of Augustine, 
Optatus, and the papers appended to the latter, to have been men, 
who, for their years and faithfulness, were intrusted to take care 
of the goods of the church, but neither luy elders nor Trgio-^vli^oi. 
But modern opinions are inadmissible evidence, 

i Contra Cresconium. Lib. iii. c. 29. 

k Concil. Carthag. iv. *'Episcopus, presbyter, diaconus, sub- 
diaconus, acolythus, exorcista, lector, ostarius, psalmista." 

R 



182 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

have been enumerated in such catalogues, but nothing 
of the kind has occurred. Augustine describes the 
orders of his day in Africa, M^hich no one better knev^, 
in the same manner.^ " A higher order contains in 
and with itself that which is less, for the presbyter per- 
forms also the duty of the deacon, and of the exorcist, 
and of the reader. Also, that a presbyter is to be un- 
derstood to be a bishop, the apostle Paul proves, 
when he instructs Timothy, whom be had ordained a 
presbyter, what kind of a bishop he ought to create ; 
for what is a bishop but a primus presbyter, that is, a 
high-priest, and he calls them no otherwise than his co- 
presbyters and co-priests, and may not the bishop 
also call his deacons his fellow servants ?" But he 
had immediately before professed not to know by 
what law, hy what custom, or what example, " the deacons 
were made equal with presbyters,''^ ^' presbyteris minisiros 
ipsorum pares,^^ " as if deacons were ordained from 
presbyters, and not presbyters from deacons." 

The expression, Peregrinus presbyter et seniores ecclesiee 
musticance regionis, oec.™ have been alleged in proof, 
that the church in the city Mustica had not only a 
preaching presbyter, but lay elders also ; and, conse- 
quently, that here is at least one example of the exist- 
ence of elders, such as are formed in some of the 
Presbyterian churches. But this semblance of an ex- 
ample of lay elders in an ancient church, is too slight 
to sustain an examination. The distinction made be- 
tween Peregrinus and the seniores ecclesice was, that he 
was a presbyter and they were not presbyters : if not 



1 "Major enlm ordo intra se ct apud se habet et minorem, pres- 
byter, enimdiaconi ag^it officium et exorcistje et lectoris. Presby- 
terum autem intelligi episcopum, probat Paulus apostolus, quando 
Timotheum, quem ordinavit presbyterum, instruit qualem debeat 
creare episcopum. Quid est enim episcopus, nisi primus presbyter, 
hoc est summus sacerdos, Denique non aliter quam compresby- 
teros hie vocat, et consacerdotos siios, numquid et ministros con- 
diaconos suos dicit episcopus. " Tom. iv. 78U. 

n^ Tom. vii. p. 270, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 183 

presbyters, consequently not the ruling elders of the 
New Testament, for these were presbyters, n^osaldlsg 
Tt^eo^vli^oi. Being neither presbyters nor deacons, and 
no intermediate grade ever having existed in the 
church, these seniores conseqv^ently had no office. 
Also, if they were not presbyters, the word seniores 
must necessarily be understood in its appellative sense, 
old men ; and the whole expression, seniores ecdesice, can 
mean no more than the aged men of the church. This pas- 
sage describes the prosecution of a petition before the 
tribunal of the prsetor at Carthage by the presbyter 
Peregrinus, and the senior members of the church at 
Mustica, against Felicianus, who detained possession 
against the sentence of an ecclesiastical assembly, 
which pronounced him a heretic. That the aged mem- 
bers, in whom the possession at least, and it may be 
the legal title of the church had been vested, should 
join with a presbyter in such petition, was naturally 
to be expected ; and no more is here expressed. 

The state of the church in North Africa, excluding 
Egypt and Cyprenaica, w^as, in the days of Augustine, 
very different from that of other countries. As every 
city had its bishop, so every parish was a diocese, and 
every pastor a bishop. The episcopate of Carthage 
had the superintendence of Africa, and the bishop of 
Hippo Regius, instead of Cirta, (Constantina) for the 
most part next to the Metropolitan of Carthage, had 
precedence over those in Numidia ; but in the Mauri- 
tanias, and generally in Africa, this depended upon 
seniority in office, and not upon the civil dignity of 
the city, as in other parts of the empire. 

The greatest respect was paid to old men, both 
among Jews and Gentiles. Polybius observes, that 
among the Lacedasmonians under the regal authority, 
all things which respected the commonwealth were transact- 
ed by and with the concurrence of the old men.^ The 

TToKtlfictv, Polyb. Hist. lib. vi. p. 681, 



184 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

Christian churches also adopted a wise conformity to 
such usages. To be consulted was the claim of the 
aged, when their interests were concerned, in rehgious 
as well as in civil matters of importance. Thus in the 
" Gesta Cceciliani et Felicis,^^ usually bound up with Op- 
tatus, mention is made of episcopi, presbyteri, diaconi, 
and seniores — seniores meaning not officers, but aged 
men of the common people. Nevertheless these ^e- 
niores, though divided from presbyters by the inter- 
vention of deacons, have been brought as examples 
and proofs of lay elders, and identified with those who 
are in the New Testament denominated ruling presby- 
ters ; but who really were and have been shown by 
many testimonies to have been those presbyters who 
presided, one in every church, and who, after the days 
of the apostles, received by custom gradually the 
power, name, and dignity of bishops. The mistake is, 
however, exposed by what follows : " Adhibete con- 
clericos et seniores plebis, ecclesiasticos viros." — Call 
the clergy of every sort, and the seniores of the common peo- 
ple, who are members of the church. Here conclericos in- 
cludes the presbyters, deacons, and sub-deacons, 
whilst the seniores due plebes, or common people.^ 

Synesius was chosen and ordained bishop of Ptole- 
mais in Pentapolis, when a layman. He wrote in ele- 
gant style, but rather as a philosopher than a divine. 
His discourse deUvered A. D. 398 before the emperor 
Arcadius, and several epistles written in the first of 

o Th^i ckro et seninribus should have been translated *' to the 
clergyman and elders'' more than once in support of the American 
Presbyterian g-overnment, is by mistake. Clero et senioribus mean 
the same with clericis et senio7'ibus. Clems is never clergymaii, this 
is clericus^ but clergy ,- and the term comprehended at that period, 
what it still does among' Episcopalians, presbyters, deacons, &c. ^ 
consequently, senioribus medint a portion of plebis, common people ; 
and was still farther restricted by the terms ecclesiasticos r/ros, 
church members, not ecclesiastics ,- ^'ecclesiastical vien" in our lan- 
guag"c is a phrase equivalent to clerical, and an obviously unfair 
translation of ecclesiasticos viros, which intended no more than men 
of, or connected with, the church . 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 186 

the following century, still renfiain in Greek, his own 
language, Cyrene, his native city, having been colo- 
nized from Greece. He distributes the officers of the 
church into the Levite, the presbyter, and the bishop, 
T.Bvilvj^y Tc^eajSvls^o^ xai fTttcfxoTttfj.P The latter of whom he 
denominates the priest of a city, his office a priesthood, 
i£^o6vvt^v,^ and speaks of the election of a bishop, at^sasoi 
iTtcaxoTiov,^ and of the imposition of the hand,^ where- 
by the party is manifested a presbyter, z^i^c rt^sajSvls^os 
a7t88B8six7o^ His representations accord with the estab- 
lished order of the ecclesiastic administration of his 
day, and shows that among the Greek Christians in 
Africa, the church was governed at that period ac- 
cording to the canons of the council of Nice. 

Sever us, of the Sulpician family, a presbyter of 
Agen on the Garonne in France, wrote an outhne of 
history, sacred, Jewish, and Christian, from the crea- 
tion unto the end of the fourth century ; the life of 
Martinus ; three epistles, and three dialogues ; and is 
supposed to have died about A. D. 420. His style 
discovers advantages in his education. His judgment 
of characters and historical facts might have escaped 
censure, had his credulity in monkish legends known 
any bounds. Speaking of the military guard, directed 
by the emperor Hadrian to be constantly kept at Je- 
rusalem, he observes, that until that period, " the 
church had no priest at Jerusalem, except of the circumci- 
sion," and that " then first Mark, of Gentile extraction, was 
made their bishop.""-^ Priests, Levites, altars, sacrifices, 
and other words proper to Jewish and Pagan worship 

P Synesii Opera, p. 2.3. Epist, 58. 

q tigiui T«c TToKioc^. Ibid. p. 198. 

f Page 222. 

s T»5 s-cvxi^io?. Page 223. 

t Page 222. 

u *' Hierosolymse non nisi ex circiimcisione habebat ecclesia 
sacerdotem" — " turn primum Marcus ex gentibus apud Hierosoly- 
raam episcopus fuit." Sulpicii Severi Sac. Hist. lib. ii. S. 45, 
p. 364, 365, 

r2 



186 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

were not introduced till after the days of the apostles, 
into the Christian church ; and sacerdos, here promis- 
cuously used v^ith episcopus, at its first introduction, 
designated only the presbyter, v^hich the occasional 
insertion siimmiis, by this writer, to distinguish the 
bishop, still viewed as the primus presbyter, plainly 
evinces. 

When comparing the state of the Christian church 
in the time of the ten years persecution, under Diocle- 
tian and Maximinus, he observes, that martyrdoms zcere 
then much more eagerly sought by glorious deaths, than 
episcopal sees are now coveted by depraved ambition ;'*' a 
clear evidence of the moral declension of the church 
in a single age after the establishment by Constantine 
of that episcopal government, which had been intro- 
duced by custom, founded in the expediency described 
by Jerom. 

In the history of his own times, he mentions the 
fact, that Priscilianus m^ade a layman, bishop of Abila. 
— "Priscilianus etiam laicum episcopum in Labinensi 
(abilensi apud Hieron.) oppido constituit."^^ Nor was 
this objected against him by the orthodox. In the 
writings of Sulpicius there is mention of bishops, pres- 
byters, arch-deacons, deacons, sub-deacons, readers, 
exorcists, but not a solitary instance of any such of- 
fice as that of a presbyter, who was a layman. 

Synesius resided on the east side of North Africa ; 
Sulpicius in the west of Europe ; the former under the 
government of the Greeks, the latter that of the Ro- 
mans ; the first was a gentleman of estate, the other a 
nobleman ; the one a philosopher, the other an histo- 
rian ; and, when converted, the former a bishop, the 
latter a presbyter; both were acquainted with the 
government of the Christian church, and both have 



V « Multoque avidius turn martyria glorlosis mortibiis quareban- 
tur, quamnunc episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur." 
Ibid. p. 368. 

w Idem. lib. ii. S. 63, p. 422, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 187 

recorded their views ; yet neither a word, nor a hint, 
has appeared in the works of either concerning lay- 
presbyters, or any such officer in the Christian 
church. 



SECTION XX. 



John Cassian ; his progress and writings, — Socrates, Sozornen, and TTieO' 
doret, ecclesiastical historians, whose writings describe the government of 
the Christian church from the council of Nice, or commencement of the 
reign of Constantine the Great. — The establishment of Christianity, and 
the power given to ecclesiastical officers for its safety, every one then 
approved. — The introduction of the Gospel into India in the days of Con- 
stantius and Athanasius, is testified hy them all, and by Ammianus, and 
was in the fourth century., and must have been diocesaji episcopacy. 



John" Cassian, after leaving a monastery at Bethle- 
hem, and visiting others in Egypt, was ordained a 
deacon by Chrysostom at Constantinople.^ Thence 
he v^ent to Rome, and finally to Marseilles, where he 
was made a presbyter, and resided till his death, A. D. 
440. The Greek was probably his native language, 
but he appears in Latin.^ He wrote Instructions for 
Monks, in twelve books ; Conferences with Egyptian 
Ecclesiastics ; and of the Incarnation, in seven. These 
writings incidentally, but correctly, describe the gov- 
ernment of the church, at that period, as episcopal ; 
yet express an opinion, that the first state of the 
church was monastic, and all things common, and 
that the latitude given by the council at Jerusalem was 
because of Gentile infirmity. But when, even from 
this, the church had degenerated, some, possessing 
the fervor of the apostles, left the cities, and retired 
into private situations, who are thence called Monks, 
Anchorites, Eremites, and Ascetics. 

a De Incarnatione, lib. vii. c. 31. 
b Collatio i. c. v. p. 219. 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 189 

An ahhas was the head of a monastery, and if it was 
remote from a city, or very large, he was usually a 
presbyter, that he might administer the sacraments. 
But sometimes vain glory suggested clerical prefer- 
ment, and a desire of the office of presbyter, or dea- 
con. Each of these was then a clerical grade ;'^ the 
office of presbyter was consequently undivided, and 
that of a deacon being also clerical, the possibility of 
an inferior presbyter is excluded. 

Seniores, in the writings of Cassian, mean either ah- 
hates, or the monks, who are intrusted with the care 
of the noviciates,"^ except when taken for the Chris- 
tian fathers, never ecclesiastical officers, for he deemed 
it an important maxim, that a " monk should by all 
means shun the bishops ;" which he said he could not 
always rehearse w^ithout confusion, for he had not 
been able to escape their hands.^ 

Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret^ wrote eccle- 
siastical histories of the same times, beginning in the 
reign of Constantine the Great, and terminating about 
the times of Theodosius the Younger. Their concur- 
rent testimony evinces the continued influence of the 
canons of the council of Nice, established by the au- 
thority of the Roman emperor ; which, with various 
modifications, are still the fundamental laws of the 
CathoHc ecclesiastical government; and have been, 
and probably always will be, unceremoniously en- 
forced, wherever her physical means have extended or 
shall be supplied. These historians are competent, but 
not always credible witnesses, even of the things which 
occurred in their own times ; for great allow^ances 
must be made for the ignorance, creduhty, and depra- 
vation of the people, and the arts and ambition of a 



c *'Nonnunquam vero clerlcatus gradum, et desiderium presby- 
ter! vel diaconatus innuitit." Sell. Cenodoxia, lib. xi. c. 14, p. 
178. 

d • Lib. xii. c. 14, p. 193. Col. i. c. 22, p. 325. 

e Lib. xi. c, 18, p. 181, de institutis. 



190 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

clergy, who maintained their estabHshment by the vigi- 
lant exercise of their new authority, and the substitu- 
tion of monkish legends and fraudulent devices, in 
the place of the simpHcity of the gospel, and its saving 
truths. 

Socrates was born at Constantinople,*" in the reign 
of Theodosius the First. After a liberal education, 
he studied and professed the law, and wrote his history 
in seven books. 

Canonical ordination, introduced, as w^e have seen, 
without either Scriptural precept or apostolical exam- 
ple, could neither enlarge nor limit the office of pres- 
byter ; its essence was the same, the ordainers being 
still presbyters. Also, the ambition of preachers ren- 
dered convenient, custom established, and civil au- 
thority confirmed, a diocesan form of government; but 
neither were the essentials of the church of Christ 
thereby destroyed, nor have presbyters gained; 
whether considered as bishops or priests, for lay pres- 
byters as yet had no existence, a particle more or less 
of legitimate Scriptural power than had been at first 
given to them. As members of the social compact, 
they may receive and bear its authority ; and as of- 
ficers of civil society, they ought to be respected ; but 
when they claim, hold, and exercise municipal oflices, 
by a divine right, because the office of presbyter is of 
such nature, their pretensions are absurd, and where 
their discernment justifies the charge of disingenuity, 
wicked. 

At that period, no prudent Christian would have 
refused to abide by those canons of councils, which, 
being the supreme law of the empire, secured the peo- 
ple from Pagan persecution under which they had 
groaned so long. Also, the high respect entertained 
for the canon law, at the first, appears by many ex- 
amples. When the church at Constantinople were 
told that Proclus, whom they had elected, could not 

f Socrat. lib. v. c. 24. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 191 

become their head, because a canon had forbidden 
the translation of a bishop,^ they submitted without 
complaint. But on the next vacancy, it having been 
discovered that no such canon existed, they, after 
tw^enty years, re-elected the man of their choice, v^^ho 
became their bishop.^ Also, the fact, that the bishop 
of Rome was deemed to have passed the bounds of 
priestly order in punishing the Novatians,^ clearly 
shows, that the public knew that the civil was to 
be merely auxiliary unto, not superseded by, eccle- 
siastical authority, in the application of force. It was 
deemed also a departure from rules, though highly 
expedient, that Silvanus, bishop of Troas, should ap- 
point a layman to try those causes, which the clergy 
had been, before that period, authorized to decide.^ 
This could not then have been a novelty, had lay pres- 
byters previously existed in the church. Nor have 
we, in all the seven books of Socrates, discovered so 
much as a word, or hint of the existence of such an 
office, whilst bishops, presbyters, and deacons, fre- 
quently occur, and always in the character of clergy. 

Hermias Sozomenes, a native of Palestine,^ cotem- 
porary with Socrates, wrote nine books, and dedicated 
his history to Theodosius the Younger. 

This writer presents neither a vestige of the long 
sought office of a subordinate presbyter, nor of any 
diversity among presbyters, except the surrender of 
the exercise of a portion of their authority to one of 
their number, then exclusively denominated bishop. 
The excellency of his style challenges our regard to 
his sense of terms. For bishop, he uses, promiscuously, 

frttcfxortoj, Tt^oalal'yjg^'^ ji^osalus,^ (^yor^fj/oj,*^ and ri^oaladia, 

and sfiKsxoTtv!, as convertible terms.P It would have 

S Lib. vii. c. 36. Ibidem c. 40, . 

i Lib. vii. c. 11. k Lib. vii. c. 37. 

1 Sozom. Hist. lib. v. c. 15. 

in XiipclovHTit T)ic a.vlto)f iU)V iKKkucriAi TTgccrlalitv. Lib. ii. C. 19. 
n Toic TTgois-laio-i ru'V inaXiicriuv. Lib. vi. c. 4. 
o Lib. vi. c. 32. P Lib. viii. c. i. 



192 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

been unaccountable, had Paul intended, by the very- 
same word, a subordinate lay presbyter,*i which other 
writers have adopted to distinguish the bishop. But 
the Apostle, and every Greek reader of his letter, un- 
derstood by it, the presbyter who presided in the 
church or presbytery. And this ruling elder was the 
man in every church, who, according to Jerom, re- 
ceived, by a general custom, and became accounta- 
ble for, the exercise of the higher powers of the pres- 
bytery. That each church, with few exceptions, still 
had, under the Nicene establishment, its presbyters, is 
abundantly evinced. Thus, instead of the confessions 
of lapsed professors made to the presiding presbyter, 
in the presence of the witnessing multitude of the church, 
as in a theatre,^' the duty was assigned to one of the 
presbyters in every church. At Alexandria this 
change did not obtain, for it had been there the cus- 
tom, and still was when Sozomen wrote, for each pres- 
byter to have his own charge, over all of whom one 
was the bishop ;' and as each presbyter preached in 
in his own place, so the bishop also alone in his, the 
arch-deacon reading the Scriptures.^ 

Other diversities also existed; in some provinces 
there was a single bishop, in others, bishops were con- 
secrated in the villages^ sv xcjixac? stu^sxohov cs^ovovvlai,^ 
Also, the custom in Rome of having only seven dea- 
cons, was not followed in all places.'^ 

Theodoritus, a native of Antioch, was, at seven 
years of age, received, for the sake of education, into 
a monastery, and afterwards instructed by Theodore 
of Mopsuesta, and Chrysostom. From the episcopate 
of Cyrus, a remote city of Syria, which he had reluc- 

q 1 Tim. v. 17. 

l" CeC iV Sixl^Ul VTTO jUcl^lu^l TCD 7r'Ki1^il']i)i iiCiCX}1t7ta.C. SOZOlll, lib. 

vii. c. 16, 

« Eivai yci^ sv ctKi^dLvS^^nct. iSos taQctTn^ n'Jii vvv ivoc ovlcs tov kaIa 

fv AvlAtg KAov a-vvA-yuv. Lib. i. c. 16. 

t Soci-at. lib. V. c. 22. Ugicr^tjlie^r,; sv ^Xi^AvS^itA ov 7r^o;o-u(\ii. 
u Sozom. lib. vii. 19. >' Ibidem. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 193 

tantly accepted, he was translated to Antioch, after- 
wards deposed by a council, and finally by another 
restored to his former see, where he died A. D. 457. 
His principal works are his commentaries upon the 
Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Psalms, Canticles, &c. 
all the prophets but Isaiah, and all- the epistles of Paul ; 
an ecclesiastical history in five books. He wrote also 
dialogues, sermons on Providence, letters, and on 
several other subjects. His piety is unquestionable, 
his talents above mediocrity, his style charming, and 
yet, however strange, his credulity was disgusting and 
contemptible. 

No where is more clearly seen than in his history, 
either the influence upon civil government which ec- 
clesiastical polity can maintain, when legally estab- 
lished; or its tendency, from the venality of ambi- 
tious ecclesiastics, to become an engine of oppression, 
or an instrument of power in the hands of princes. 
Julian sought sanctuary in it as a reader,'^^ whilst in 
his heart an idolater,"" and an enemy, for he interdicted 
the teaching of poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy to the 
** Galileans.''^ Nor could he have had any aim, in 
recalling to Antioch, Alexandria, Italy, and Sardinia, ^ 
their banished bishops, but to procure favor with the 
Christians, whose numbers he feared. Accordingly 
as an emperor was pagan, Arian, or orthodox, he 
contrived to countenance idolatry, or to introduce 
bishops of his own creed, but generally with caution. 
All parties courted power, and by it Pagans and Chris- 
tians, without other argument, asserted their claims. 
Yet was it a posing question, which a presbyter of 
Edessa offered to the Prefect, who was directed by 
Valens to support a bishop of his own appointment: 
^' Whether the emperor received the dignity of priest- 
hood with the imperial commission."^^ For this he 

w Theod. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 2. 

^ — Exta rimabatur adsidue, avesque suspiciens. — Aminian, 
Marcell. lib. xxii. c. 1. 

y Theod. lib. iii. c. 7. z Lib. iii. c. 4. aa Lib. iv. c. 16. 
S 



194 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

suffered ostracism by the edict of Valens, who, Hke 
JuHan, hated the Christians, and, Hke him, fell by the 
just vengeance of heaven. This discrimination was 
confessed also by Yalentinianus, when he said to or- 
thodox bishops sohciting a convention of the clergy, 
whom, nevertheless, he favored, that it was not law- 
ful for him, a layman, officiously to interfere.^^ In 
like manner, Theodosius, to whom Gratian had trans- 
ferred the East after the death of his uncle, when Am- 
brose directed the emperor, by a deacon, to stand 
without among the laity, ^^for that the purple constituted 
emperors, not priests,^^ took the station assigned him, 
and expressed his gratitude for the reproof '^'^ The 
efforts of Theodosius were exerted to reduce the re- 
maining idolatry which JuHan had revived, and Va- 
lens, after the death of Jovian, had partially, at least 
re-revived. From that time the hierarchy estabHshed 
by Constantine*^*^ remained immovable amidst the 
convulsions of the eastern and western empires, and 
the paralyzing influence of Arian and other heresies ? 
and may be said, under aH the revolutions of modern 
times, stiU to exist. 

In his commentaries w^e find no lay presbyters, and 
no discrimination between those who rule, and those 
who labor in teaching.^^ He even makes them the same 
persons.^^ In one place, he supposes they that were 
over them,^^ were those who offered up prayers ; in 
which he agrees with Justin, who says, the president^ 
jt^osaluii, offered up the eucharistic prayers. ' He ac- 
knowledges that presbyters are intended, in the writ- 
ino-sof theNevv^ Testament, where bishops are named ;^^^ 



Sozomen. lib. vi. c. 7. 

cc Theod. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 18. 

dd Idem. lib. v. c. 20. 

ee Thcod. 1 Tim. v. 17. Heb. xiii.7. 

If Idem. Heb. xiii. 17. 

gg Idem. Thess. v. 12. 

I'll Idem. Phil. i. l.> 1 Tim. iii. and Titus i. v. 7. 



OF CHRISTIAJf CHURCHES. 195 

but he supposes a higher order existed ; and accounts 
Epaphroditus to have been the apostle of the PhiHp- 
pians. But Paul denominates him only their messen- 
ger to bring him supplies. Titus he places over Crete, 
and Timothy over the churches of Asia ; and thinks 
the same rules which were given to presbyters, w^ere 
apphcable to those of such superior rank, w^ho after- 
wards took the name bishop exclusively, and left the 
title apostle to those who w^ere " truly^^ such. But 
this unsupported conjecture of a primitive ordinary 
office, superior to presbyters in every church, of 
which no one has ev^er shown a syllable of proof, badly 
accords with what he has said on Titus, first chapter, 
of the " custom'^ that there should be one bishop, and a 
plurality of presbyters in each city. 

The introduction of episcopacy in India, shown in 
each of these histories, is substantially the same. 
Meropius, a Tyrian philosopher, following the recent 
example of Metrodorus, w^ent with his tw^o nephews, 
Edeslus and Frumentius, into India in pursuit of know- 
ledge. Having explored the country, they thought to 
return in a vessel. Landing in a port of India for re- 
freshments, they were seized, the philosopher slain, 
and the youths made captives. They served the king 
till his demise, and remained with the queen during 
the minority of his son. Frumentius sought out Ro- 
man traders there, with whom, and some natives, he 
worshiped. Emancipated, they returned together 
unto the Roman borders, w^hen Edesius went home to 
Tyre, Frumentius to Alexandria, unto Athanasius. 
He showed him the prospect in India, w^as ordained 
bishop, and, returning by sea, successfully planted the 
gospel in India." In the first apology of Athanasius to 
Constantius, he complains that the emperor had writ- 
ten to Atzanias and Sazamas, the governors of Auxu- 
mis, to send Frumentius, w^hom Athanasius had or- 



" Socrates, lib. i. c. 19. Sozomen, lib. ii. c. 24, TUeod. Hist. 
Eccles. lib. i. c 23. 



196 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, 

dained, to George, bishop of Alexandria, to be tried, 
or instructed ; and requires that the people and clergy 
should become Arians, and if any disobey, they must 
be put to death. If this be the same Frumentius, 
Abyssinia was the India in this history, for Auxumis 
is a city eastward from the head of the Nile, and to- 
wards the sea. But there are reasons against that 
supposition. Admitting that a colony of the Indi set- 
tled in Africa, and were still called by that name ; yet 
the country to the south-east of Persia at the period 
of those writers was, and still is, India.^^ Also, the 
youths appear to have gone from Tyre unto, and re- 
turned from, India by land. Neither of the historians 
mention Auxumis, or appear to have thought of Abys- 
sinia. They allege, there was a king in India not sub- 
ject to the Romans, but the letter of Const antius is 
addressed to two governors, and requires them to act 
in a style suitable to their being his subjects, confer- 
ring upon them the dignity of Roman citizens. So- 
crates speaks of the India to which Bartholomew came, 
and evidently had on his mind the account given by 
Eusebius,^^ who says, that Pantsenus had visited the 
place to which Bartholomew went, and had found a 
Hebrew copy of Matthew's gospel there; neverthe- 
less, Socrates asserts that the Christian religion did 
not enlighten them before the time of Constantine. Also, 
Sozom.en testifies, that the priesthood had this its begin- 
ning in Jndia}^''^ The two first of these historians dis- 
criminate between a nearer and an ulterior India, 
and evidently confine these occurrences to the nearer ; 
also, according to Socrates, Meropius visited the same 
region of the Indies, which Metrodorus had then late- 
ly traversed. But Metrodorus was, on his return, 
robbed, or feigned himself to have been robbed, 
by Sapor, king of the Persians, which act Constantine 

kk Athanasii Opera, p. 20. 
" Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 20. 

^^"^ yijuiv Sh rrsigct JvSoi; li^ccyvinlu.u'rriV t:r^iv a^^nv, Sozom.lib. 
ii. c. 24. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 197 

resented and made it a matter of accusation, which 
continued such in the reigns of Constantine and Ju- 
lian. "^ The return of Metrodorus from India must 
therefore, have been through Persia ; and the route 
of the young men being the same, the India, here 
mentioned, certainly lay in the East, and was not 
Abyssinia. These and other reasons seem conclusive, 
that the accounts are of two Frumentius's, and if so, 
then the period of the commencement of episcopacy 
in India, is lixed to have been in the fourth century ; 
when episcopacy, as estabHshed by the canons of the 
council of Nice, was prevalent every where. 



Ell — « Expeditionem parans in Persas — ad ultlonem praeterito- 
rum vehementer elatus est." — Scil, Julianus Ammian Marcell. lib. 
xxxii. c. 12. Non Julianum, sed Constantium ardores Parthicos 
succendisse cum Metrodori mendaciis avidius acquiiscit. — ^Idem. 
lib. XXV. c. 4. 



2s 



SECTION XXI 



Leo succeeded Sixtus; his claim of Roinan superioritij because they pos- 
sessed the ashes of Peter; and might expect his favor still. Leo at- 
tempted as civil authority failed to view the ecclesiastical power founded upon 
divine right, and having argued Peter's higher commission, supposed his 
apostolical authority still to remain, and to he devolved on the bishop of 
Rome. But the first councils established the dignity and authority of the 
sees by those of the cities in which they were. To secure the canons of the 
council of Nice against the repeal attempted in later councils, he supposed 
them inspired. His claim of appellative jurisdiction rejected by the bishops 
of Africa. Actuated by pride and intolerance, his high talents and popular- 
ity gave him great advantages in establishing the papal throne, which it was 
his chief aim to accomplish by every means, wrong and right Although he 
failed in the East and Africa, yet he succeeded in bringing the heathen in- 
vaders of the Empire in Europe all under the spiritual power of thebishop of 
Rome. 

Leo, denominated the Great, after having exercised 
the office of archdeacon of Rome during the term 
of twenty years, was elected successor to Sixtus the 
third, A.-D. 440. His works are in the finest style of 
Latin ; of the Greek his knowledge was defective. ^ 
Possessing unusual quaUfications in point of know- 
ledge, influence, experience and eloquence, he evinced 
by his uniform conduct a disposition to extend the pa- 
pal jurisdiction, equally by courtly address or daring 
enterprise, truth or falsehood, right or wrong, to the 
utmost extreme. 

Having claimed and held an unscriptural superiority 
to the presbyters of Rome,^ and thereby the closest in- 

a — injung-o — ut universa facias — in Latinumtranslata, lit in nulla 
parte actionum {sciL- concilil Chalcedonensis) dubitare possimus. 
Leon: ep, 90. 

l> Etius, ab officio arcliidiaconalus per speciem provectionis (soil. 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 199 

timacy with the pontificate, through a term of twelve 
years prior to the elevation of Sixtus, his talents being 
also occasionally had in requisition by the Emperor, in 
promotion of the public weal, he must have concurred 
in the craft and violence displayed by that bishop in 
retaining the diocess of Illyricum, contrary to a canon 
of the council of Ephesus of 441.^ 

Because Rome was declining, the empire divided into 
two, and the enemies of both increasing in numbers, 
power, and military skill, it was attempted by Leo to 
render the claim of ecclesiastical precedence more 
permanent, by founding it on sacred authority. The 
superior dignity of the Roman see was therefore al- 
leged to have arisen from a higher commission given 
to the Apostle Peter, whose bones, left in that metro- 
polis, perpetuated the right of supreme authority, 
whatsoever might be the diversity of the merits of the 
bishops in the seat itself Peter being ever an apostle, 
and still having by an ubiquity of presence the pastoral 
care of the whole church > has a more special regard 
for his favorite church where his body sleeps, and in- 
tercedes for them by his prayers in heaven.'^ And 
therefore the representative of Peter has precedence 
of all bishops in the church^ universal. Such dialecti- 
cal skill had not been attained by the bishops of the 
first general council of Nice, for they confirmed by 
their canons the jurisdiction of the bishops of Alexan- 

ad presbyterattim) amovetur. Leon. op. 133. Qui primus fuerit 
ministrorum et a Pontificis latere non recedit, injuriam putat si 
presbyter ordinetur. Hieron. ez. 48, 

c Council Ephes. can. vii. 

d — cui ter dixit "pasce oves meas:" quod nunc procul dubio fa- 
cit, & mandatum Domini pius pastor exequitur, confirmans nos co- 
hortationibussuis, et pro nobis orare non cessans. Leon. op. p. 4. 
Si autem banc pietatis suae curam omni populo Dei, slcut creden- 
dum est, ubique przetendit, quanto magis nobis alumnis suis opem 
suam dig-natur impendere, apud quos, in sacro beatse dormitionis 
thoro requiescit. Ibidem. Etsi enim diversa nonnunquam sint 
merita pr?esvdum, tamenjura permanent sedium. Idem, p, 137. 

e — cunctis ecclesias rectoribus Petri forma praeponitur. Leon, 
opp. 3. 



200 ' THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

dria, Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem, over the same re- 
gions respectively, which they had gained by ancient 
custom/ Nevertheless higher objects than the heresy 
of Arius convened the first oecumenical council ; and 
their decrees, established by Constantino as the su- 
preme law of the empire, effected, as he had designed, a 
Christian establishment instead of the Pagan, and con- 
formed to its features; in which the diocesses of the 
empire had their patriarchs, the capitals of the pro- 
vinces their metropolitans, and the cities their suffra- 
gan bishops ; the grade of civil authority in each of 
the cities becoming the standard of the jurisdiction of 
their bishops ; which hierarchy has been, as far a& the 
revolutions of the nations would allow, continued into 
this day. The second general council did therefore 
decree, "that the bishop of Constantinople should have 
the birthright of honor, next to the bishop of Rome, 
because she is New Rome." Also the council of 
Chalcedon, in number the fourth, which consisted of 
more than six hundred bishops, and in which Leo ap- 
peared by his legates, have shown this same ancient 
opinion of the origin of the dignity of the church of 
Rome, alleging that the precedence given to that 
church had been because the city was imperial,^ and 
that they, for the same reason, gave equal privileges 
to the holy see of New Rome, that is of Constantino- 
ple.^ The councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Chal- 
cedon, had consequently no idea of the divine right 
which the bishops of Rome have claimed, to sustain 
an authority likely to decay with the declension of the 
dignity of their city. The jurisdiction given to the 
See of Constantinople by the council of Chalcedon, 
over Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, and the bishops of 
those diocesses, who were among the Barbarians, was 
violently resisted by Leo, but ineffectually, because 

*" Cone. Nic. can. vi. and vli. ^actp^ctia. iB>i-ovlo <rvv»Bis sirli—. 

S Cone. Chalced. can. xviii. Sicc lo ^Acrixivuv lav Troxtv. 

h Cone. Chalced. can. xviii. tw uvIcjd o-^ottca Kivovuivoi — icrct 



OF CHRISTIAX CHURCHES. 201 

founded on the known rule, that upon a division of a 
province the bishop of the new metropohs took rank, 
and power, as a metropoHtan. Thus, in the diocess 
of Thrace, the suffragan of Byzantium had become 
the archbishop of Constantinople, to the exclusion of 
the exarch of Heraclea, when Constantino made it the 
seat of his empire. At length also the metropohtans 
of the respective diocesses of Pontus and Asia fell 
under the bishop of New Rome. 

These things Leo pronounced wicked attempts, *'ausus 
improbos," but to the decrees of the council of Nice 
he ascribed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.^ Ac- 
cordingly the canons of the six hundred and thirty 
bishops convened at Chalcedon by the authority, and 
ratified by the decree of the Emperor, are to this hour 
held, by the western church, to have been wholly void 
of authority, except as to matters of faith,*' because 
rejected by this haughty prelate, who chose to consi- 
der the canons of the council of Nice incapable of re- 
peal.^ • Yet Leo found no scruples in entertaining, and 
encouraging appeals to himself under the canons of 
the council of Sardica, although expressly contrary to 
the fifth canon of the same council of Nice, which 
had given the jurisdiction in such cases to the provin- 
cial Synods. Whatever enhanced the powder of the 
Roman see, was therefore valid and every thing of a 
contrary nature void. Both the cunning and disin- 
genuousness of this bishop were opposed, when hav- 
ing ambitiously besought the Emperor, that his "vicars 
should preside," in the council of Chalcedon, "because 
he learned, not without sorrow, that some of the bre- 
thren were not able to retain Catholic firmness, against 
the violence of misrepresentation,"™ he imprudently 



i — quas per 218 antisiites Spiritas Sanctus instituit. — Leon, 
ep. 79. 

t Zonaras. p. 92. Binn'ms Partis xi. c. vi. 

1 Si quid usquam aliter quam illi statuerunt, prsesumitur, sine 
cunctatione cassatui*. Leon. ep. 80. 

ni Quia vero, quidam de fratribus (quod sine dolore non didici- 



202 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

demanded of the council, in his letter to them, pre- 
suming upon the Emperor's conceding it, that they 
should consider him to preside, hy those who were 
sent immediately from the apostolic seat, and to be pre- 
sent in his vicars;" thus claiming from the bishops the 
right of presiding over the council, as the prerogative 
of his see, at the time he was askingthe very same 
thing, as a favor from the Emperor, and thereby^ ac-, 
knowledging the right to be in him. Nevertheless the 
Emperor, remembering no doubt the outrages of the 
council at Ephesus, saw it to be proper, to direct his 
own representatives to hold the first places, and the 
legates the second, except during the trial of Dios- 
corus, from which the imperial commissioners had 
been instructed to retire. 

In Christianity, knowledge being practical, and truth 
holy, they are not possessed so long as the heart is 
adverse; but, in common estimation, orthodoxy is 
attainable by the disingenuous, and the name of high 
theological proficiency becomes the reward of the 
ambitious. Leo's letter to Flavianus exhibited the 
views of the incarnation generally entertained by the 
bishops of the fourth council, and was both an evi- 
dence of ingenuity, and an instrument of popularity. 
Nevertheless, some of them, alleging that it approached 
too near to the error of Nestorius, refused it ; until his 
legates consented to anathematize that heretic. It 
was not, therefore, adopted by the council, from any 
idea either of the infallibility, or authority of Leo ; and 
its general reception in both empires, chiefly resulted 
from the acquiescence of the council of Chalcedon in 
its correctness. To secure its adoption by the council, 
he gave it great publicity. He sent it to the bishops 



mus) contra turbines falsitatis non valuere catholicam tenere con- 
stantiam, prsedictum — vice mea Synodo convenit prsesidere. Leon, 
ep. 69. 

n Qui ab apostolica sede directi sunt, me Synodo vestra fraternitas 
existimet pr?esidere, qui nunc in vicariis meis adsum. Leon, 
ep. 87. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 203 

of Gaul, that their approbation might accompany it in 
the East, but their answer came too late. The ac- 
knowledgment, that it contained the expression of 
their faith, which they had received from their fathers, ° 
had neither been sought, nor made, if the bishops of 
Rome had been then deemed exempt from error. Yet 
he replied, when " the holy Synod had amputated from 
the church" the errors against which he had asked 
their influence, " that it had been by his humble writ- 
ings, supported by the authority and merit of his Lord, 
the most blessed apostle Peter."? By such flourishes, 
for which that saint would have blushed, could they 
have reached Paradise, did Leo claim the authority of 
Peter, knowing that his office terminated with his life, 
and that he was neither the head of Christ's church, 
nor present with it, and that he had derived from Pe- 
ter not a particle of authority, more than Paul and 
other apostles had given to each of the six hundred 
and thirty bishops who composed the council. 

In his excellent, but craftily designed letter to the 
bishops of Mauritania Ccesariensis, after reciting that 
many had been chosen from the laity to the episcopal 
office, he is pleased to say: "We permit them to hold 
the received priesthood, without prejudice to the apos- 
tolic seat, and the decrees of our predecessors and 
ourselves, which contain the salutary enactment, that 
no one of the laity, though supported by num.erous 
votes, shall ascend to the first, second, or third degree 
of the church, before he has arrived at that favor^ 
through the legal steps."'^ Such laws, being merely 
human, and founded only in convenience, may be 



o — Recognoverunt fidei suae sensum, et ita se semper ex tradi- 
tione paterna tenuisse. Leo Opera, p. 127. 

P Sancta nunc Synodus (humilitatis nostrae scrlpt'is, auctoritate 
Domini mei beatisimi Petri apostoliet merito roboratis) amputavit, 
&C. Idem. p. 329. 

q Leon, epist 1. — Ex laicis ad ofRcium episcopale delecti sunt. 
Sacerdotium tenere permittimus, non praejudicantes apostolicse 
sedis statutis, &c. 



204 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

suspended by those v^ho made them : but had they 
been divine, he must have arrogated a power of dis- 
pensation never given to a mere man. His excessive 
indulgence proved, nevertheless, inadequate to secure 
to him the jurisdiction w^hich he aimed to exercise 
over the churches in Africa ; they rejected his authori- 
ty, held him bound by the canons, and would, by no 
means, suffer appeals to be carried to the bishop of 
Rome. 

After a long peace, the approach of Attila, the ter- 
ror of both empires, drove the irresolute Valentinian 
the Third, from Ravenna to Rome, where it was re- 
solved to send an embassy to meet the monarch of the 
Huns. Leo and two others were selected to negotiate, 
each eminent for rank, talents, experience, and ad- 
dress. The clerical appearance, deportment, and elo- 
quence of the bishop are said to have produced a sen- 
sible impression upon the barbarians ; with whicfi also 
his own peculiar circumstances co-operated to give 
success. His subjects w^ere not universally idolaters, 
for many Christians had been carried away by the 
Goths from the Roman provinces in the latter part of 
the fourth century, from whom they had gained some 
knowledge of" the gospel. From these, Ulphilas had 
descended, who had translated portions of the Scrip- 
tures into their language, and been held by them in the 
highest estimation. 

With Genseric, the king of the Vandals, though a 
Christian, Leo was less successful. Invited by the 
injured Eudoxia, from the coasts of Africa, he crossed 
to the Tiber, and sacked Rome fourteen days, without 
opposition. The bishop acted a noble part, going 
forth* with his clergy to meet him, he saved much ef- 
fusion of blood, but only obtained milder terms for the 
suffering citizens. Wealth, not territory, ^vas the ob- 
ject of the invader, who possessed accurate informa- 
tion of the weakness of the Romans, and the confusions 
of the councils of the men who w^ere in power. Though 
a barbarian, yet professing to be a Christian, he could 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, 205 

have designed no injury to the churchv • These em- 
barrassments of the empire were, in each instance, by 
the vigilance and address of Leo, rendered ancillary 
to his purposes of enlarging the authority, and extend- 
ing the power of his own ecclesiastical monarchy ; 
which, it is probable, both Attila and Genseric per- 
ceived to be as capable of enhancing, ultimately, their 
own influence, as that of the Roman empire. 

Leo evinced characteristic adroitness in filKng va- 
cant sees with men prompt to subserve his designs, in 
extending his own influence by intimidating some, and 
gaining the favor of others ; and in removing out of 
his way, men who were conscientiously inflexible. 
Even the patriarch of Constantinople, his greatest rival, 
was under his direction, so long as Flavianus lived, 
whom he ruled by friendship ; but over his successor, 
Anatolius, he could not maintain the ascendency ; he, 
nevertheless, gained some verbal concessions from 
him, not an abandonment^of jurisdiction, by his in- 
fluence on Marcian and his empress. He gave ready 
audience to complaints against patriarchs, metropoli- 
tans, and inferior bishops, thereby- extending his juris- 
diction, under the pretext of administering justice. 
His favorable standing with the emperors, both of 
Rome and Constantinople, which he so industriously 
cultivated, and his unremitting communications with 
the eastern bishops by letters and messengers, were 
advantageous to the cause of orthodoxy against the 
heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus ; but all were in- 
suflicient to secure to the Roman see any authority in 
Thrace, Asia, Palestine, and Egypt, whatever may 
have been alleged by modern writers to the contrary 
notwithstanding. The supineness of the WTctched 
Valentinian the Third, allowed, during his feeble reign, 

1- Genseric was an Arian, and persecuted the orthodox bishops 
m Africa with relentless fury. He took away the golden table and 
candlesticks which had been brought to Rome from the temple of 
Jerusalem; and also the spoils of paganism belonging to the capi- 

T 



206 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ample scope to the ambition of this bishop. Aries was 
the eye of Gaul, and her bishop, because the exarch of 
the seven provinces of Narbonne, was a Mordecai to 
Leo. Hilary, the envied rival, had deposed Celido- 
nius from the episcopal grade. The discarded bishop 
received countenance, and was allowed to officiate at 
Rome. Hilary also came to the capital of the empire, 
and, after visiting the tombs, called on Leo, and com- 
plained, that bishops deposed in Gaul were allowed to 
exercise their ministry at Rome ; but whilst he alleged 
it to be scandal, he said he did not come to accuse. 
After affirming the propriety of his own conduct, and 
disregard of the menaces of Leo, he returned to Aries ; 
but sent a priest and two bishops to Leo, with suitable 
instructions. The answer which he received from the 
prefect of Rome, insinuates that Leo was governed 
by pride, and actuated by intolerance. Leo well 
knew that he could not canonically receive the com- 
plaint of Celidonius, but he was determined to subju- 
gate the see of Aries. The success of the African 
churches, in combatting his claim of appellate juris- 
diction, had probably excited him to efforts more vio- 
lent in extending his jurisdiction in Europe. But the 
unrelenting cruelty which he practised against the in- 
genuous and excellent Hilary, because he opposed the 
unjust extension of the power of the Roman see, is not 
atoned by the canonization of the name of Hilary. 
And it excites disgust to see Leo pronouncing the 
memory of him blessed,' when out of his way, whom, 
whilst living, he had reviled, in his letter to the bishops 
of Yienne, as the vilest of men. 

At the commencement of this century, the Roman 
empire was severed into two. Before its termination, 
the Western fell wholly into the hands of the barba- 
rians. The Ostrogoths possessed Italy, the Huns 
Pannonia, the Franks Gaul, the Visigoths Spain, the 
Vandals Africa, and the Saxons England. The policy 

8 Defuncto Sacrse memorix Hilarlo. Epist. 50. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 207 

of Leo aimed to secure to the bishop of Rome the ec- 
clesiastical pre-eminence which had been incident to 
the imperial purple as Pontifex Maximus,but nominal- 
ly abandoned by Constantine, and the Christian empe- 
rors. His efforts in the Eastern empire, and in Africa, 
were fruitless. In the West, his successors, following 
his steps, ultimately prevailed. The barbarian chiefs, 
well knowing the power and influence of the Christian 
clergy, even among their own tribes, wilHngly trans- 
ferred to them the same profound respect which had 
been yielded to their idolatrous priests. Thus each of 
the kingdoms which arose in, and superseded the Eu- 
ropean portion of the Western empire, not only adopt- 
ed and established the Christian religion, but with sur- 
prising passivity subjugated themselves to the usurped 
authority of the hierarchy of Rome. 

Our purpose being to ascertain the primitive gov- 
ernment of the Christian church, as it was left by the 
apostles and evangelists ; and, in order to the right 
interpretation of the sacred w^ord, first to know from 
facts the additions which have been made since their 
days, that we may exclude them from any part in such 
interpretation, it is unnecessary to continue an unin- 
terrupted investigation of its history, lower than unto 
the period when the Western church was fully estab- 
lished in Europe. 



SECTION XXII. 

Separatists from the Western church prior to the Protestant Reformation. — 
The Piedmoiitese were in the Latin church in 817.— Their archhishop, 
Claude, lived and died in connexion v)iih the Catholics. -^Had bishops, after 
their separation, who were denmninated Seniors or Ancients. — Perrin was 
a follower of Waldo, and incredilde as to historical facts before his day. — 
The Waldenses of Bohemia and Moravia preferred the doctrines and wor- 
ship of the Eastern church, but were obliged to yield to the persecutions of 
the Latin. — Their seniors or elders loere superintendents or bishops in the 
modern sense. — The Waldenses of France were the followers of Peter 
Waldo and others, who adopted the ancient discipliiie of the evangelical 
churches in the valleys of Piedmont. 

Had this people, prior to the Reformation, an order 
of ecclesiastical officers, who were mute presbyters, 
or lay elders ? This is the subject of the following 
investigation. 

That a secluded Christian people had inhabited 
either the valleys of the Alps, or the forests of Ger- 
many, from the days of the apostles, without connex- 
ion either with the Roman or Greek church, has been 
often asserted, but never shown. The people of Pied- 
mont, and those of Bohemia, have, with justice, 
claimed an existence, respectively, prior to the time of 
Waldo. His followers flying from persecution in the 
south of France, have often found sanctuary w-ith 
both; and all of them have been persecuted under 
papal bulls made against the Waldenses. But whilst 
a similarity of doctrines obtained among them, they 
lived under different civil and ecclesiastical govern- 
ments ; their creeds, articles, confessions, and disci- 
pline, though in substance allied, were not identically 
the same. To escape the confusion which exists in 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 209 

the histories of the Waldenses, this name must be used 
only for the followers of Waldo, amalgamated as they 
are with the orthodox of Albi, and the consideration 
of them postponed to the successive accounts of the 
Piedmontese and Bohemians. 



THE PIEDMONTESE. 

Piedmont, named from the valleys of the Alps, d. 
pede montium, was subject to the Lombards, from the 
year 568, until 774, when Charlemagne destroyed the 
monarchy. It constituted a part of the German em- 
pire from that period until its dismemberment in 888. 
From thence till 919, all Italy was in confusion. In 
936, Otho conquered Italy, and the valleys of the Alps 
remained under German princes till 1137, when they 
became the property of the house of Savoy ; who were 
counts till 1416, dukes till 1713, and afterwards, by 
the acquisition of Sicily, kings till 1796. 

In these valleys the gospel was planted at an early 
period ; and being a frontier of Italy, their religious 
government was that of the peninsula. But remote 
from the vortex of corruption, they tardily received 
innovations. They were still a constituent part of the 
Latin church in the year 817, and subject to the reli- 
gious government of that age, which was episcopal. 
Claude, in 815, had been promoted to be arch-bishop 
of Turin, the principal city of Piedmont, by Lewis the 
Meek, the son of Charlemagne and emperor of the 
West. But whilst Claude submitted to the ecclesias- 
tic supremacy, he denied the orthodoxy of the Pope. 
In the council of Frankfort, 794, he had been active 
against image-worship, and had seconded the empe- 
ror's wishes to bring over pope Adrian the First from 
the errors of the second Nicene council of 786. 
When, in 823, this excellent man was accused of inno- 
vation, because he ordered the images to be cast out 
of his churches, he declared. " that he taught no new 

T 2 



210 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

sect, but kept himself to the pure faith." The truth 
was supported during his Ufe, in Piedmont, against 
the corruptions of the Latin and Greek churches. He 
Hved and died the arch-bishop of Turin, in full con- 
nexion with the Catholic church. Nor did the Pied- 
montese depart from the communion of that church, 
" so long as she did not attempt to force them to em- 
brace her errors." The Piedmontese churches were 
episcopal before and during the hfe of Claude. His 
followers were persecuted by his successors in office, 
but not immediately ; for Claude Hved nearly to. the 
dismemberment of the German empire, after which, 
the poUtical confusions of Italy presented some defence 
against persecution, till the conquest by Otho. As 
this period was long before Dominic and his inquisition, 
it is not probable that the principles and doctrines of 
Claude produced a separation before the middle of the 
tenth century. Sir Samuel Morland, who was sent by 
Cromwell to the duke of Savoy, in 1658, to mitigate 
his persecution of the Piedmontese reformers, has ob- 
served, that Claude left the lamp of his doctrine to his 
disciples, and they to their successive generations in 
the ninth and tenth centuries. The precise era of their 
separation from the Catholic church, we have not 
found ; but no persecution appears to have been sus- 
tained by them under the German princes to whom 
they were subject, till 1137. If, indeed, that oldest 
document, which is furnished by Perrin, and by Mor- 
land, purporting to be a confession of their faith in 
fourteen articles, and which they place at 1120, were 
so old, that would prove a separation, before they came 
under the house of Savoy. But though in 1146, they 
were persecuted, and some of them fled into Bohemia, 
there is neither proof nor probability shown, that 
those articles were four centuries before the Reforma- 
tion. The twelfth was made against the doctrine of 
transubstantiation, which we should not expect before 
the council of Lateran, in 1215, or at the earliest, in 
1160. The ninth, expressly against the error of pur- 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 211 

gatory, which would seem to have been unnecessary, 
before the council of Florence, in 1438. When these 
articles were made, they, no doubt, had still their 
bishops and priests, as there is not a word in them 
concerning church government. The followers of 
Claude must have retained episcopal ordination. The 
monk Rainerus names Belazinanza of Verona, and 
John De Luggio, as eminent bishops of the Waldenses 
about 1250 ; and is quoted by Perrin, as having writ- 
ten of the Piedmontese, in his account of heretics, that 
" they had a greater bishop, and two followers, whom 
he called the elder son, and the younger, and a deacon ; 
that he laid his hands upon others, with sovereign 
authority, and sent them where he would, like a pope." 
This Perrin denominates an "imposture." But the 
monk relates things of his own day, and his means of 
knowing the truth w^ere better than those of Perrin. 

The latter was averse to episcopacy, wished to 
represent the Piedmontese and the reformers in 
France, as the same sect; and has actually concealed 
the episcopate of Stephen, the last bishop of the Aus- 
trian Waldenses. What Perrin has gleaned in oppo- 
sition to Rainerus, rather supports him. He says, 
from Morel and Masson, of Provence, who were divid- 
ed from the Piedmontese only by the mountains, and 
were more nearly allied to them than those of Dau- 
phine : " The money that is given us by the people is 
carried to the aforesaid general council, and is deliv- 
ered in the presence of all ; it is then received by the 
ancients, and part thereof is given to those that are 
travellers, or way-faring men, according to their ne- 
cessities, and part thereof unto the poor." These an- 
cients were clerical men, and the seniors, or bishops, 
who ordained their preachers, like Stephen, the last of 
the Austrian Waldensian bishops, from whom the Uni- 
tas fratrum now hold their succession. The name bish- 
op was generally substituted by some other word, as 
senior, superintendent, or perhaps guide, and leader ; 
but was understood by Rainerus. The way-faring 



212 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

men, who received an annual support from the people, 
through the hands of these bishops, were the travelling 
preachers whom they sent "where they thought 
good," to different and distant places in the countries 
of Europe, who were persecuted every where under 
the name of Vallenses, and afterwards as Waldenses. 
What the form of the ecclesiastical government of the 
Piedmontese came to be, is uncertain. Their preachers 
were called barbes and pastors. Their guides or 
leaders, if they were not the same with the ancients or 
bishops, were laymen of prudence, to direct the peo- 
ple, who lived under a Catholic and persecuting civil 
government, whose fury they were often obliged to 
shun by fleeing to the mountains. 

The assertion, that " the office of ruling elders as 
retained in their churches, is recognized in a number 
of places in Perrin," we cannot find supported, and be- 
lieve to be founded in mistake. One place has been 
pointed out in his works, (ch. 4, p. 49,) to show that 
there was a synod, in which ministers and elders con- 
vened, "long before the time of Luther." But it 
proves to have been after the deaths of Luther, Me- 
lancthon, Bucer, Zuinglius, Peter Martyr, and Cran- 
mer. We do not wonder that such mistakes should 
have been made, in reading the confused story of John 
Paul Perrin. He never lived either under the civil 
or ecclesiastical government of Piedmont ; he was a 
follower of Peter Waldo ; lived at Lyons, and dated 
his works in 1618. He is a loose writer, without any 
talent for discrimination, and his credibility has lately 
been, and perhaps deservedly, impeached by the Rev. 
William Jones. 

Morland mentions a manuscript dated in 1587, 
seventeen years after the synod last spoken of, which 
speaks of annual councils, and of one, at which there 
were one hundred and forty barbes ; but no elders are 
said to have been present. We have found no synods 
among them before the Reformation. On the 12th 
September, 1532, after the Augsburg confession had 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 213 

been made, and the protest signed, and after the peo- 
ple of the valleys knew that the Waldenses of Dau- 
phine and Provence had sent their pastors, George 
Morel and Peter Masson, into Germany, to confer 
v^ith OEcolampadius and Bucer, they held a general 
meeting at Angrogne, to hear the letters of those re- 
formers, and then entered into articles accordant with 
the doctrines of the Reformation. But even there we 
find no mention of ruling elders or lay presbyters. 
The intermediate unscriptural order did come in at 
the Reformation, but we have found no trace of it be- 
fore it. The resort to the history of the Piedmontese 
to prove lay presbyters, appears, therefore, to be en- 
tirely unavailing. 



THE WALDENSES OP BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA. 

In the ninth century, the ambition of the. rival pon- 
tiffs of Rome and Constantinople, occasioned efforts 
to be made by both the Western and Eastern churches, 
to plant the gospel under their respective standards 
on the banks of the Danube. The sister of the king of 
the Bulgarians became, whilst a captive at Constanti- 
nople, a Christian. He sent thither for missionaries, 
and obtained Cyril and Methodius, Pastors, also, 
afterwards went from Rome into Bulgaria. The at- 
tempt of the Roman see in the tenth century to render 
the Bohemians subject to their ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, produced resistance and persecution ; but their 
ritual was at length received upon the express condi- 
tion, that it should be in the Sclavonian language. In 
this century, evangelical impressions were made on 
the Hungarians, Dalmatians, Polanders, Danes, and 
others. The duke of Bohemia, Bolislaus, was a Chris- 
tian of the Latin church ; his daughter, the wife of the 
duke of Poland, persuaded her husband, about 965, to 
become a Christian. But idolatry prevailed near the 
southern shores of the Baltic. In Pomerania, Chris- 



214 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

tianity was not tolerated till the arms of Otho had 
prevailed in 1126. The people of Bohemia were 
averse to the Romish rites, preferring those of the 
Eastern church, but in the twelfth century their zeal 
began to succumb to persecution. In 1146, some of 
the' Vallenses, fleeing from Roman persecution in 
Piedmont, sought refuge among them. That Peter 
Waldo died in Bohemia in 1179, is not supported. 
The Bohemian Christians, whilst with the Greek 
church, can, with neither reason nor propriety, be sup- 
posed to have had lay presbyters, for none such are 
found in that church ; and so far as the influence of 
the Latin"''church prevailed with them, it could have 
had no tendency to produce an office, equally foreign 
to its principles, and unknown in its government. Du- 
ring the reigns of the native kings of Bohemia, which 
terminated in 1305, and until the reign of the emperor 
Charles the Fourth, which began in 1346, the corrup- 
tions of the Western churches had been generally 
adopted in Bohemia. The great number of orthodox 
professors, said to have been in Bohemia in the four- 
teenth century, must be misrepresentation. The 
Catholic errors were afterwards resisted by the pious 
confessors, Conrad Stickner, John Militsh, and Mat- 
thew Janowsky, all of whom died near the end of the 
fourteenth century, and by John Huss. The latter 
adopted the doctrines of Wickliff", was burned in 1415, 
and is accounted the founder of the society of Unitas 
fratrum ; but the name and compact of union obtained 
not, till after the middle of the fifteenth century. 
These have been called also Waldenses, from their 
union with those of Austria. These being episcopal, 
there was still neither place for, nor the existence of, 
lay presbyters.^ In 1432, the council of Basil satisfied 



a Postea iidem, scilicet Fratres Bohemt, sen Unitas fratrum cum 
reliquls quibusdam Waldensium, in confiniis Moravise et Austriac 
ag-entibus, conjungendi, unitate inter eos ac confoederatione inita. 
Unde commune Bohemis. Fratribus Waldensium nomen," &c. 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 215 

the Calixtins, who contended only for the cup, and 
terminated the war which followed the death of Huss ; 
but his other followers, the Taborites, were not recon- 
ciled. In 1438, popery gained the ascendency, by the 
estabhshment of the Austrian line over Bohemia and 
Hungary ; and the termination of the Greek empire 
by the Turks, in 1453, prevented further eiforts to re- 
turn to the Greek church. Being cut off from ordina- 
tion both from the Roman and Greek churches ; in 
1467, the Brethren obtained episcopal ordination, for 
certain men chosen to be seniors, superintendents, or 
bishops, from Stephen, who was the last bishop of the 
Austrian Waldenses, (Vallenses,) and was burned at 
Vienna in 1468. 

This excellent, evangehcal, and persecuted people, 
had more respect for sound doctrines, than scrupulous 
correctness in the matter of church government. Their 
prejudices have always been for the episcopal govern- 
ment, even whilst groaning under the oppressions of 
diocesan episcopacy. From the commencement of 
their new episcopate, which was about fifty years be- 
fore the Reformation, they had eight kinds of officers ; 
elders, almoners, inspectors of buildings, ministers, aco- 
luths, (candidates for the ministry, who read homi- 
lies,) deacons, who preach, presbyters, or priests, who 
administer ordinances, and bishops, whom they denomi- 
nate seniors?^ The confession of faith, which this 



**Patet veneratas eas ecclesias suos episcopos, vel super-atten- 
dentes, primos cum ordinis turn potestatis praerogotiva; scalam 
ministerii suis gradibus distinxisse," &c. Frederici Spanhemii 
Hist. Christ, Secul. xv. Lemma vii, 

t> Perrin, p. 64, says: "At the time when the doctrine of John 
Huss was received and entertained there, the ministers, elders, and 
Protestants of Bohemia say," &c. And in p. 66, speaking- of the 
martyrdom of the Austrian Waldensian bishop Stephen, he calls 
him *'an elderly man." In p. 19, he says, Aldeg-onde relates, that 
** There was a certain man called Bartholomew, born at Carcas- 
sone (in France) who founded and governed the churches in Bul- 
garia, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Hungary, and ordained ministers," 
&c. Perrin must have known, that these elders and clergymen 



216 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

people first presented to Ladislaus in 1508, and pre- 
sented amplified, to Ferdinand in 1535, and which 
received a preface from the pen of Luther, does men- 
tion " eZc/er.s," but expressly as ordainers of ministers, 
who were, therefore, the seniors before mentioned. 
Their elders, who were inferior to the almoners and 
inspectors, were laymen, not presbyters. If their dea- 
cons were preachers, their presbyters, who were of a 
superior order, could not have been laymen ; if also, 
both were inferior to their seniors, being ordained by 
them, these were their bishops. It is very strange 
that a proof of the imaginary order of lay presbyters 
should be attempted to be brought from a church, 
which held, and still holds, not only the presbyters, 
but the deacons of the apostolic times to have been, 
by the nature of their offices, preachers of the word. 



THE WALDENSES IN FRANCE. 

The south of France was the country of the Wal- 
denses, properly so called. A few of the persecuted 
followers of Claude, the Vaudois, Vallenses, or Pied- 
montese, had fled over to Provence, and enjoyed 
peace. Among these, Joseph preached with success ; 
and in Languedoc, in the twelfth century. The Jo- 
sephists were prior to Waldo. Peter Bruis taught in 
the same strain, in the latter place, in 1130, and was 
burnt at St. Giles. Henry was the successor of Bruis. 
Their followers were called Peter Brussians, and 
Henricians. In the same region, Arnold, and Esperon, 
a priest, in the same century, opposed the errors of the 
Romanists. All who held the doctrines of these re- 
formers, and who lived near Albi, were called Albi- 



were bishops, but ^\'nting• a century after the Reformation, he 
wishes to cast a veil over the government of those churches. What 
confidence can be placed in such a writer? 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 217 

genses ; a name, by which all of this faith, who lived 
westward of the Rhone in France, were called, as 
others on the east of that river were distinguished by 
the name of Waldenses.*^ These were so called from 
Peter Waldo, a layman of talents, learning, and piety; 
who abandoning merchandise at Lyons, began to 
preach the gospel in 1160. His success produced the 
anathema of pope Alexander the Third, against him 
and his followers. These fled over the Rhone into 
Provence, into Piedmont and into Germany, and Wal- 
do, after three years concealment, fled into Picardy, 
and afterwards to other places. They who took re- 
fuge in Piedmont, were denied, by the house of Savoy, 
that toleration, which the natives of the valleys en- 
joyed, holding similar doctrines. The Waldenses, in 
the south of France, multiphed in concealment. 
From 1305 to 1362, Avignon was the seat of rival 
popes, by which circumstance they were greatly ex- 
posed. In 1380 and 1398, they were furiously perse- 
cuted. In 1478, Lewis XL directed letters to the gov- 
ernor of Dauphine for their relief, but in 1484, those 
who inhabited the valley of Loyse, were almost literal- 
ly exterminated by the arch-bishop of Ambrun. The 
oldest confession of faith of this people, may be found 
in Bray's Perrin,"^ and in Sir Samuel Morland^ in dif- 
ferent Enghsh translations, in twelve articles. It was 
furnished by Du Molin, and had been made at some 
period before the Reformation, but how long after the 
death of Waldo, is not known. The fifth article alone 
touches the subject of government ; is opposed to the 
Catholic hierarchy, but neither elders nor presbyters 
of any kind. A paper, which Sir SamueF denominates 
" The ancient disciphne of the evangelical churches in 
the valleys of Piedmont," Perrin,^ who was a Wal- 

c The Paullcians were called also Albigenses, because con- 
demned by a council held at Albi in 1176. 

d P. 2. b. 1. c. xiii. p. 24. e Page 37—39. 

f Page 72. s Book v. c. vii. 

u 



218 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERKMEK^T 

densian, gives as " "J'he discipline under which th@ 
Waldenses and Albigenses lived." It is allowed by 
both to have been several hundred years before the 
Reformation. In it purgatory, transubstantiation, 
extreme unction, and confirmation, are all rejected. 

The opinions of these historians of facts passed be- 
fore their day, are little to be trusted — their docu- 
ments alone are valuable. In this discipHne are con- 
tained, in the second and fourth articles, these words : 
" Amongst other privileges which God hath given to 
his servants, he hath given them this, to choose their 
leaders, and those who are to govern the people, and 
to constitute elders in their charges, according to the di- 
versity of the work, in the unity of Christ, which is 
clear by that saying of the apostle in the epistle to 
Titus, chap. 1. For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou 
shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and or- 
dain elders in every city as I had appointed thee." In ar- 
ticle 5, " Rulers and elders are chosen out of the peo- 
ple, according to the diversity of the work in the unity 
of Christ," &c. Perrin omits the catechism, which 
constitutes the fourth article. In Bray's translation, 
these things are thus rendered : " Amongst other 
powers and abilities which God has given to his ser- 
vants, he hath given authority to choose leaders to 
rule the people, and to ordain elders in their charges^ 
according," &c. "We choose among the people 
rulers and elders according to the diversity of their 
employment, in the unity of Christ." Perrin also gives 
from " book of the pastors, George Morel and Peter 
Masson," the same who were sent from Provence into 
Germany to consult the reformers in 1530, the hke 
account : " Amongst other powers which God hath 
given to his servants, it belongs to them to choose 
guides of his people, and elders in their charges, accord- 
ing," &c., ut supra. By elders in their charges, must 
have been intended pastors, who were elders in the 
Scriptural sense. They certainly had pastors, because 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 219 

Morel, Masson, and Perrin were such, and the flocks 
could have been the charges of no others. The quo- 
tation from the epistle to Titus, which is a direction to 
ordain elders, brought as an authority for the office, 
also evinces the correctness of this construction. 
The terms, constitute and ordain, used with elders, 
and not with rulers and leaders, discover an additional 
proof, that the elders were the preachers or pastors of 
the churches ; and that such leaders and rulers, being 
neither said to be constituted, nor ordained, w^ere con- 
sequently not elders of any kind, except in the appel- 
lative sense. The single question on these passages 
must be, whom, or what must we understand by the 
*' leaders, and those who are to govern the people ;" 
which is Morland's translation of " Regidors del poble,^^ 
the words of the discipline. Perrin's copy, or transla- 
tion, has been rendered by Bray, " leaders to rule the 
people;" and the expression of Morel and Masson 
are translated " guides to the people." These were, 
therefore, under every view, evidently laymen, chosen 
to advise and support the people, under the dread- 
ful persecutions to which they were so often sub- 
jected. The same kind of prudent men were selected 
also among the Piedm.ontese, for the same purpose. 
If Perrin and Morland be each correct in their title 
prefixed to this discipline, then the Waldenses ob- 
tained it from the Piedmontese. Neither in the val- 
leys of the Alps, nor in France, had the pious presby- 
ters, who were ordained over their congregational 
assemblies, wisdom or experience sufficient to guide 
such multitudes, under the pressure of persecutions 
scarcely second in malevolence, fury, and cruelty, to 
any that have been in the world. Unless the elders, 
mentioned in the passage quoted by them, were 
preachers, Titus ordained none in Crete ; by elders, 
therefore, pastors must have been understood; and 
they seem to have availed themselves of the other 
general terms, as an authority for the choosing of 



22D THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

guides, to set in order things -which were ixanting ; and 
save them from that extermination, which the anti- 
Christian hierarchy ever meditated, and unremittingly- 
pursued ; for in later times the edict of Nantz suffered 
the scion to grov7, only that, by the nefarious revoca- 
tion of that statute, it might be the more effectually 
extirpated* 



SECTION XXIII 



OF OFFICES AND ORDINATIONS. 

The Jewish and gospel dispensations commenced with immediate inspi- 
ration. Legal toleration had been granted to the Jews, in the exer- 
cise of their own religion, it was necessary that the apostles should 
teach, baptize, and ordain as they did, but they claimed no priesthood, and 
•ordained officers for the churches they erected, bishops or presbyters, one 
bench for every assembly, and deacons. Matthias., Paul, and Barnabas. 
There are no evangelists in the history of the church, except the first extraor- 
dinary preachers. The reception of the evangelists depended upon the re- 
commendations of the apostles. Testimonies of Polycarp, Clement, Justin, 
IrencBus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian. Letters assigned to Ignatius, 
^^Apostolical Tradition.'^ Firmilian, Cyprian, ^c — Ordinary officers were 
presbyters and deacons, and there were but two ordinations. The ordination 
which now constitutes a modern bishop, originated in gradual eustom,first 
tmthout hands, then with, and now rests upon canonical authority, and is no 
where found in the word of God. 

The Mosaic economy terminated with the death of 
Christ, who was a minister of the circumcision. After 
his resurrection, he commissioned eleven apostles, to 
go and disciple all nations. They were to testify the 
things, which they had seen and heard; and reveal the 
truths, which should be suggested to their minds by 
the Holy Spirit. Such is the basis of all present au- 
thority for evangehzing the world. But it no more 
follows, that any regular preacher has the commission 
of an apostle to govern the general church, than that 
he possesses the gifts of such. For as none can be 
strictly apostles, that is, immediately instructed and 
sent by Christ, so none possess, either their inspiration 
and genera] authority, or their extraordinary power. 

Under the theocracy, commissions were by conse- 
2u 



222 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

cration, with imposition of hands.*^ The apostles be- 
ing Jews, and tolerated in the Roman empire only as 
such, were guided by the Spirit to baptize, teach, and 
ordain, in the modes to which they had been accus- 
tomed. But they neither claimed, nor exercised a 
priesthood, nor considered ordination as an apostolical 
prerogative, but merely as a duty, incident to the 
greater work of discipling and teaching. 

Whilst many justify innovations on the ground of 
expediency, not a few have thought, that a right has 
devolved upon the church, through the apostles, of go- 
vernment, discipline, and dispensing ordinances. The 
present prevaihng forms of ecclesiastical government, 
having originated since the days of the apostles, do re- 
quire some such vindication ; for certainly there is nei- 
ther apostohc precept, nor example for any ordination 
in a particular church, except those of bishops and dea- 
cons ; and if bishops and presbyters be the same office, 
the additional ordination, whether of the diocesan bish- 
op, or the lay presbyter, finds no authority in the word of 
God. But if the church possess the right to create new 
officers, and to transfer to them, the government, and 
rite of ordination, this exceeds the claim of infallibility, 
it is to legislate in the place of God. 

Matthias was elected, separated by lot, and numbered 
with the apostles, but was neither personally sent by 
Christ, nor ordained by imposition of hands, being an 
apostle only in the appellative sense, as was Barnabas. 
The first ordination was of seven deacons in the 
church at Jerusalem, chosen by the people, and set 
apart by prayer, and imposition of the hands of the 
apostles, there being as yet no presbytery. When the 
prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch, prayed 
and imposed their hands on Saul and Barnabas, they 
seemed raiher to have given a testimony of their con- 
currence to a mission, or apostleship, hkely to awaken 

a Num. vi'ii. 10. xxviii. 18. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 223 

prejudices, than to have ordained them lo an office. 
Timothy was ordained probably to be a presbyter, by 
the "laying on of the hands of a presbytery," who had 
been ordained for an individual church. Imposition 
of hands might designate, and publicly recognise per- 
sons ; but it neither transmitted virtue, nor authority ; 
nor defined duties. Paul's commission was, conse- 
quently, neither enlarged, nor restricted by the mission 
he received at Antioch. Nor was Timothy's office of 
evangelist, which was an extraordinary commission 
to aid the apostle of the Gentiles, produced by the act 
of a presbytery in his ordination to be a presbyter. 

The primitive churches when duly furnished, had 
each its presbytery and deacons ; and of necessity in 
planting churches, the apostles and evangelists did, 
when alone, respectively ordain presbyters in those 
which were new.^ But afterwards the presbytery of 
every such church ordained successors to themselves, 
and also deacons, not by communicating any virtue, 
which they had derived mystically from the apostles 
or evangelists ; but by assigning them, in the discharge 
of their own duty, with the consent of the people, a 
share in the government and service of the church. 

The validity of offices in the church of Christ, is 
independent of the internal call. But both ordainers 
and ordained, should have reasonable grounds to be 

b Paul and Barnabas returning" to the churches which they had 
planted; "ordained presbyters for them in every church," x^ipo- 
TovnTaiVTii J'i ctvToic TTpio-jZuTipcv ( K^Tet iKKKnatctv wlth praycr aud 
fasting. The Greeks used ;^e//)c;Tcv2a) for electing- by lifting" the 
hand. But Paul and Barnabas could not have thus voted, being 
but two, yet the act was theirs. Et/t<9«,u^ is the expression for 
imposing hands. More must have been intended by x^ip^'rovMo-Avne, 
than simply that they appointed; it must mean that they set them 
apart to the office of presbyters, for that was the effect, and such 
is expressed to have been the office, audit was with prayer and 
fasting". Although ;)^upirovieD implies not necessarily, either voting 
by lifting the hand, or ordaining by imposing the hand, for it is used 
for constituting Moses a ruler, and Aaron and his sons priests, by 
God himself; yet it is probable that Paul and Barnabas did ordain 
by imposition of hands. 



224 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMEiVT 

satisfied of the truth of this grace ; which is no more, 
than the ordinary change of heart or disposition, with 
a conviction, that it is the duty of the party to preach 
the gospel, and that he has the requisite knowledge, 
learning, talents, and soundness in the faith, to render 
him useful. The authority of the officers of the church 
is derived through the apostles, who received their 
commission from Christ in person, and were directed 
by the Holy Spirit, to provide teachers for the churches, 
in the manner they have done. If the case of Mat- 
thias, who received sTii^axortTjv, an oversight, be not an 
exception, the apostolic authority and gifts were pecu- 
liar to those, who were commissioned by Christ after 
his resurrection; and the nearest approximation to 
theirs was the office of evangelist, which was also ex- 
traordinary and evanescent. No evangelists appear 
in the history of the church after the deaths of those 
who were cotemporaries of the apostles ; nor do any 
other officers, except those of individual churches, for 
a century after the death of John, who died the last 
of the apostles. The first interpretation of a rule is 
generally and justly supposed to be the right one; the 
first condition of the churches estabhshes the only or- 
dinary offices of the New Testament to have been 
those of the presbyter, called also bishop, and of the 
deacon ; and the only ordainers, except the apostles 
and evangelists, appear to have been the presbyteries 
of the respective churches. The presbyter, who pre- 
sided in each, denominated in the Apocalypse, the an- 
gel of the chuich, was consequently thus ordained, and 
to the same office with his brethren. Also, if the sa- 
cred word be alone competent to prescribe and define 
legitimate powers, and rightful commissions of officers 
in the church of Christ, there is to this day no higher 
grade, than that of presbyter ; and no one inferior to 
the deacon; neither is there rightful ordination, but 
by presbyters. These may pray for the Holy Ghost 
to breathe upon those, on whom they put their hands ; 
but have no power to communicate that blessing ; and 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. .225 

that a moral virtue should proceed from the hands of 
any, who now ordain, is no more to be believed, than 
that the water in baptism should either physically, au- 
thoritatively, or mystically remove guilt. Words may 
invest authority, but "so send I you," did neither trans- 
fer the Mediator's commission, nor constitute the dis- 
ciples priests. The apostles were embassadors of God 
as well as witnesses of Christ ; and being in all their 
work inspired of God, they were directed to appoint 
evangelists to plant churches ; and ordain presbyters 
and deacons to teach, govern, and serve them. But 
when such were designated by ordination, the gospel 
was their law, or rule of conduct ; and to this day, no 
powder is communicated to supersede such rule, but the 
rightful offices and ordinances remain the same. 

Titus, Timothy, and other evangelists, inferior in 
rank and gifts to the apostles only, w^ent forth to the 
w^ork; connected permanently with no particular 
church or churches, they superseded, during their 
stay, the ordinary officers in places already furnished, 
and ordained presbyters and deacons in those which 
were destitute. The works of the apostles procured 
that precedence and respect, to which their inspiration 
was entitled; the evangehsts were chiefly regarded, 
because they spoke, and wrote the truths preached by 
the apostles ; but no officers were left, when these were 
removed, except those connected with individual 
churches. Parochial and diocesan bishops, archbish- 
ops, primates, patriarchs, and popes, have all proceeded 
from presbyters, without any other scriptural ordina- 
tion, than that, by which they may have been consti- 
tuted presbyters. When convenience, or poUcy, had, 
after a lapse of time, introduced the rule, that no or- 
dination by presbyters should be valid, unless performed 
in the presence of the primus presbyter, called for distinc- 
tion the bishop, the laying on of the hands of Paul, 
2 Tim. i. G. with those of the presbytery, 1 Tim. iv. 14, 
was adopted as an argument to justify the novelty. 
But in still later times, Timothy, then deemed to have 



226 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

been a bishop, appeared to have been ordained only as 
a presbyter, because in the third ceiitury presbyters began 
io be excluded from the ordination of a bishop. To 
avoid this difficulty also, and escape an opposition to the 
word of God, the presbytery, expressly so called, 
which ordained Timothy, was imagined to have been 
a council of bishops; "Because," says Chrysostom, 
" mere presbyters had no power to ordain a bishop ;" 
a petitio princijoii worthy of the golden-mouthed father. 
But Jerom makes this occurrence an argument to 
prove presbyters and bishops to have been the same ; 
for Paul had not Barnabas with him, at the time he re- 
ceived Timothy. Also there were no councils of bish- 
ops, except the presbyteries, in the respective churches. 
The case of Timothy, when he had been by modern 
rules, degraded from the office of evangehst to that of 
bishop, was still encumbered with remaining objec- 
tions ; for no hands ought to have been imposed, either by 
Paul, or the presbytery, upon him to make him a 
bishop; this being proper, by the apostolical canons, 
only to presbyters; the canons requiring, in the case of 
bishops, the holding the Scriptures over the head of 
him, who is to be ordained bishop, during the conse- 
crating prayer. The canons, although a forgery of 
the fourth century, are evidence of the customs of their 
day, and do by this circumstance embarrass also the 
moderns, who suppose it an omission, although the rea- 
sons against such omission are conclusive. Timothy 
had been ordained by the presbytery of his church, in 
the absence of Paul. Afterwards Paul took him, as 
suitable help with him, and with his own hands, as 
usual, conferred the gifts necessary to an evangelist. 

The letter of Polycarp, of high credibility, describes 
the officers of the church at Philippi only as presbyters 
and deacons. In the inspired letter of Paul to the same 
church, the officers are addressed as bishops and dea 
cons ; the terms presbyter and bishop being as yet used 
promiscuously, the same office is obviously intended 
by both, Valens had fallen into error, and the letter 



OF CHRISTIAN' CHURCHES. 227 

of Polycarp, rocognising the authority of the presby- 
ters over their co-presbyter, and representing him as 
having been " made a presbyter among /Aew," clearly 
enough shows that the apostolic church atPhilippi was 
under its own presbyters, who exercised the powers 
of ordination and excommunication. This being the 
first testimony after the apostles, andby one who lived 
with them, is decisive. 

That the same w^as also the precise condition of the 
church at Corinth, when Clement, of whom Paul 
speaks, wrote from Rome his only undisputed letter to 
them, is obvious from its language : " Let any one 
among you, who is generous — say if the division is on 
my account — I go where you please, and will do what 
the multitude shall appoint, let the flock of Christ en- 
joy peace alone, with the p7'esbyters, 7i{>s6l3v7£pav, who have 
been appointed over it^^ Of these he speaks as having 
the gifts of iHi6xo7iriq^ the oversight.^ 

When Justin Martyr wrote his two apologies for the 
Christians, which was within fifty years of John, there 
were only presbyters, whereof one in each church 
was o ;tpofo7wj scil. ?tpe(y|3D7fpof, the p7'esiding (presbyter) 
who administered the eucharist, and deacons w^ho car- 
ried it to the people. Ordination was of course per- 
formed at that period, by presbyters only. 

Near the end of the second century Irenceus wrote 
against heretics, and relied chiefly on the certainty of 
the sameness of doctrines, by referring to the succes- 
sions of bishops in the primitive churches, but whom 
he expressly represents as presbyters, presiding among 
their brethren. Such w^ere Soter, Victor, and others in 
the catalogue of Popes, whom he terms Ti^^s^vlspot ot 
rtpo<j7av7f?, and if they were only presiding presbyters, their 
being also styled bishops, amounts not even to a pre- 
sumption, that there had been a secondary ordination. 



c Clement, epist. i. c, 54. 

d T* efaeat T«f s?r/a-*6T»f. c. 44. 



^28 THE PRIMITIVE GOVEENMENT 

Clement of Alexandria places bishops in honor before 
presbyters, because they occupied the^r^^ seat, npcoloxa- 
Osdpia, in the presbytery. Nevertheless, he makes but 
one order above deacons ; also the ordination to the 
office of presbyter he mentions, but nothing of any 
subsequent ordination. He lived into the third cen- 
tury. 

Tertullian, of the first part of the third century, 
gives the same representation of things at Carthage. 
He distinguishes bishops, presbyters and deacons ; the 
presbytery v^as still of one church, and denominated 
ecclesiastici ordinis consessus. He speaks of one order 
only.® The idea of the bishop was still that of a' pre- 
siding presbyter, for he denominates him prmsidens, an- 
tistes, SLud summus sacerdos ; and mentions no ordina- 
tion of such, but to make him a presbyter. 

At no earlier a period than the first of the third cen- 
tury could the letters attributed to Ignatius have been 
written^ They describe the bishop of an individual 
church as occupying the first seat, rtpoxaerjfiEvov ; and a 
presbytery of preachers v^ith deacons. But they dis- 
cover no ordination, to remove a presbyter to the 
higher station of a bishop. 

The "Apostolical Tradition,''^ ascribed to the Hippoly- 
tus of the third century, being the same substantially 
with the eighth book of the supposititious "Apostolical 
Constitutions/^ represents a bishop and presbytery to 
have been in each particular church, and details mi- 
nutely their respective investitures in office. The peo- 
ple, presbytery, and the neighbouring bishops, convene 
on a Lord's day, to set apart the person previously 
chosen by all the people. A bishop asks the presbytery 
and the people, if this is the person whom they desire for a 
President, ov avlovvlav sia a^xovla ; and they consenting, 
it is again asked of his character. After the third con- 



e Differentiam inter ordinem et plebem," &c. Tertull. v. iii. p. 
119, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 229 

sent, silence being made, " One of the first bishops, to- 
gether with two others, standing near the altar, the 
rest of the bishops, and the presbyters, praying in si- 
lence, and the deacons liolding the divine gospels opened 
over the head of him, who is ordained, let him say to 
God." Then follows the prayer. The ordination of 
a presbyter is -with impositioii of hands^ and is described 
in these words. " When thou, O bishop, ordainest a 
presbyter, do you yourself put the hand upon the head, the 
presbytery standing near thee, and the deacons ; and 
praying, say," &c. The prayer to consecrate the 
bishop, discovers, that he is to have the power of bind- 
ing and loosing. The prayer, accompanied with the 
imposition of hands on a presbyter, expresses, that he 
is to edify the church by the word ; and those for the 
deacon, deaconess, and subdeacons, which follow, 
speak only of service ; and are also with the imposi- 
tion of the hands of the bishop. 

Presbyters having been from the first, ordained by 
imposition of hands; the appointment of one of these 
to preside, which w^as not by a second ordination, con- 
ferred on him neither a new order, nor office, and the 
ceremony of ordination was rightly excluded. It 
could not have been an omission ioY it is supplied by 
neither Hippolytus, nor the Constitutions. It cannot 
be implied, as some have alleged, because the idea of 
imposing hands occurs in neither, till they arrive at 
the scriptural ordinations. As the bishop and presby- 
ter w^as then known to be the same office, originating 
in one ordination, the innovation would have been of- 
fensive ; also the holding the Scriptures over the head 
was sufficiently distinctive. The ceremony of con- 
ducting the bishop unto, and seating him on his chief 
seat, is minutely described in both ; and that points us 
to the origin of this canonical ordination. From apos- 
tolic times some mode of designation of a presbyter 
to the^r5^ seat, rtpo/JoxaSsSpia, must have existed. That 
it was deemed an ordination before the third century, 
is supported by no proof, but excluded by the isolated 

V 



^30 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

condition of the individual churches, the subjugation 
of Christians to the Pagan estabhshment, the hmited 
powders and actual services of the bishops or presidents, 
as vi^ell as by the introduction of the ordination with- 
out imposition of hands. Thus although the powers 
of the primus presbyter had accumulated through all 
the second century, especially in the larger cities, it 
was not before the middle of the third, that the desig- 
nation to such presidency over his fellow presbyters, 
denominated by Jeiom, "in gradu excelsiori colloca- 
tio," was considered as a second ordination. Then 
the influence of bishops, though parochial, became 
enlarged by consultations, and frequent communica- 
tions, and the monopoly of the rite of ordination, un- 
der the pretext of preventing discordances among 
presbyters. Also the existence of one church only in 
a city, enhanced the authority of the bishops of the 
larger cities ; where the presbyters, however numer- 
ous, constituting the presbytery of a single church, ex- 
ercised their talents, except in Alexandria, under the 
direction of the presbytery, over which the bishop 
presided. The power of ordaining, and not his own 
commission, distinguished the parochial bishop. Had 
the canonical ordination commenced so early as the 
second century, bishops would have discovered their 
claims to the heritage, at a period prior to that assign- 
ed to the fact by veritable history. The division of 
ordinary grades into three, must have commenced with 
the re-ordination of presbyters to constitute them 
bishops ; but the supposition, that this existed in the 
apostles' days, is not only entirely gratuitous, but per- 
fectly chimerical. 

When ordinations by presbyters had been generally 
superseded, their original powers were not forgotten. 
"The elders," says Firmilian, "preside, who possess 
the power of baptizing, imposing the hand, and or- 
daining."^ They also sat in the first annual councils, 

f "Ubi prxsiduntmajoresnatu, qui et baptizandi, etmamim im- 
ponendi, et ordinandi possident potestatem." Cyprian, epist. 75. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 231 

in Asia Minor. "Every year, we, the elders and the 
presidents meet in one place, to dispose of the things 
committed to our care."^^ Even at Carthage, Novatus, 
whom Cyprian calls his co-presbyter,*' ordained Feli- 
cissimus a deacon, without the permission or know- 
ledge of his bishop,' which was neither declared void, 
nor immediately subjected to censure. Gregory Thau- 
maturgus, Phidimus, and Alexander, each ordained, 
and each had received but one ordination.^ Nor have 
we found prior to the Cyprianic age, the ordination of 
any one to be a bishop, who had been previously a 
presbyter. 

Ambrose the metropolitan of Milan, Nectarius of 
Constantinople, Eusebius the successor of Bazil, Euche- 
rius bishop of Lyons, Cyprian of Carthage, and Philo- 
gonius bishop of Antioch, are thought to have been 
laymen when ordained to be bishops. Athanasius 
bishop of Alexandria, Csecilianus of Carthage ; Agapi- 
tus, Vigilius and Felix, bishops of Rome, and Hera- 
clides bishop of Ephesus, were never presbyters, ex- 
cept as bishops, having passed from the order of dea- 
cons to that of bishops. These and such examples, 
accruing soon after bishops and presbyters had been 
established by canon law to be distinct orders, accord 
with the fact that there had been from the first no or- 
dination, except of the deacon and presbyter. - 

Constantine could not as a Christian, receive with 
the purple, the Pagan supremacy of Pontifex Maximus; 
but he established, instead of idolatry, the Christian 
church, by adopting the canons of the council of Nice 
as the supreme law of the Roman empire. Thus the 
ordinations of presbyters and deacons, according to 
the usages adopted in the different provinces and king- 



s Per singulos annog, seniores et proepositi in unum convenimus 
ad disponenda," &,c. Ibid. 

h Epist. 15. 

i "Dlaconum nee permittente me, nee sciente — constituit." 
Epist. 52 Vide a later instance, Cassian 267. 

k Gre^^or. Nyss. 2 vol. 979. idem. 995. 



232 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

doms, were legalized; and in imitation of the idola- 
trous priesthood, a metropolitan was erected over 
each province, and his approbation was thenceforth ne- 
cessary to every ordination of a bishop within his ter- 
ritories. The system of ecclesiastical government 
thus estabhshed, was somewhat multiform, because it 
had been removed from the apostolical plan in differ- 
ent degrees and various particulars, in the remote pro- 
vinces and countries. But subsequent councils devised 
numerous canons, to reduce the different customs of 
distant churches more nearly to a common standard. 
Thus ecclesiastical authority, substituted by the laws 
of the empire in the place of the Pagan, though at first 
excusable as a defence against persecution, has, by 
worldly policy and priestcraft, grown into a hierarchy, 
which at different periods has proved an engine, even 
surpassing the former, in violence and blood. 

The ascendency gained by the presiding presbyters 
in the churches, furnished, to civil and ecclesiastical 
policy, a ready expedient for the substitution of a Chris- 
tian, in the place of a Pagan priesthood. Yet was it 
well known, that the ordination of the bishop and of 
the presbyter was originally one and the same. Hilary 
the deacon, observed on 1 Tim. iii. "After the bishop, 
he, Paul, subjoins the ordination of the deacon. Why, 
unless because the ordination of the bishop and pres- 
byter is the same?"^ Aerius affirmed they differed in 
nothing; the order and the honor were one; the bish- 
op imposes hands, and so does the presbyter.''^ Basil 
an aspiring metropohtan, acknowledged, that the 
things written by Paul to Timothy, and Titus, were 
spoken conjunctly to bishops and presbyters. Also his 
friend Gregory, who for a time was archbishop of 



1 Post episcopum dlaconi ordinationem subjiclt. Quare, nisi 
quia episcopi et presbyteri una ordinatio est ? Ambros. torn, 
iii. 272. 

m — ovSiv SictXhanici ovlo? rcvlov jutA yap ealiv m.^id mt /utx 
Ti/un, ^iiftoQilii — iTTicricoTrog, ctxKA nxt Trpicr/^vlipcs. — Epiphan. 
lib. iii. vol. p. 906, 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 233 

Constantinople, "wished there had been no first seat, 
priority of place, or tyrannical dictatorship;" showing 
that he esteemed the precedence adventitious. It is 
probable, that the pecdiar disposition of Aerius, and 
the disappointed views of the pious bishop of Nazian- 
zum, may have occasioned such expressions; yet were 
they not the less founded in truth. Chrysostom ob- 
served,^ that bishops were superior to presbyters only 
in ordination. And Jerom asks, "what does a bishop, 
ordination excepted, which a presbyter does not.",° 
They both speak of ordination, as it was in their own 
day, resting upon custom, and canons, established as 
laws of the empire, and not of ordination, as it had 
been left by the apostles. The former, in his flourishes, 
often accommodated the Scriptures to the usages of 
his own day ; whilst the latter, equally favorable to 
ecclesiastical power, but of more extensive learning, 
and knowledge of history, has disclosed the same view 
of these things, which the truth still exhibits; "that a 
presbyter w^as the same as a bishop, and that the 
churches were governed by a common council of 
presbyters, but afterwards it was decreed throughout 
the world, that one, chosen from the presbyters, should 
be placed over the rest."^ The evidence of these 
things has survived to this day ; the numerous efforts 
to destroy it, and establish the contrary, notwithstand- 
ing. If the offices were one, they required but one 
ordination. 

The sum is, that when the extraordinary officers, the 
apostles and evangelists, passed away, they left only 

n Horn. 1 Tim. iii. 8. 

o Epist. 85. ad Evagrium. 

P "Idem est ergo presbyter, qui et episcopus — communi pres- 
byterorum concilio ecclesise gubernabantur. Postquara vero in toto 
orbe decretum est, ut unus de presbyteris electus superponeretur 
caeteris."— Hieron. op. Tom. vi. 198. The " decretum est" he 
explains by " consuetudine."— p. 199. Augustine refers the su- 
periority also to custom— '^ecclesia'* usus obtinuit, episcopatus 
presbyteris major sit. Tom. ii. Epist. ad Hier. He also asks 
««Quid est enim episcopus, nisi primus presbyter ?'* Tom. iv. 780. 

v2 



234 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

presbyters and deacons in the churches : the duties and 
pow^ers of v^hom w^ere perspicuously detailed in the 
New Testament. Ordinations were consequently of 
those two kinds only, both of which w^ere to be per- 
formed by the presbyters of the churches respectively. 
Ordination communicated no gift, virtue, or right; but 
merely designated the person as solemnly appointed to 
the work attached to such office in the sacred word: 
neither the truth nor the efficacy of the gospel, nor the 
validity nor utility of its ordinances, depending upon 
either the internal call, or the external commission. 
But although the ordination, which now adds the epis- 
copal authority to the office of a presbyter, and is sup- 
posed to confer on the bishop the sole right to ordain, 
is merely founded on custom, and supported by eccle- 
siastical canons, and imperial decrees ; and not by 
scriptural authority ; and notwithstanding the ordina- 
tion of lay elders is a still more modern invention, and 
wholly unknown to ancient Christians, yet may salva- 
tion be obtained, and the gospel faithfully preached 
Ujider any forni of church government. 



SECTION XXIV. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF LAY ELDERS BY CALVIN. 

No instance of a lay pr 'shyier occurs in the Jdstory of the church before 
the Reformation. — They had no place among Catholics. — The Culdees 
of Scotland and Ireland were Catholics. — The Syrian Christians were 
episcopal, and were planted in the fourth century ; the Vallenses or Pied- 
montese, the persecuted Bohemians and Moravians, and Waldejises of 
France, were all Catholics, and as really Episcopalian as the Eastern 
and Western churches. — They were introduced hy Calvin as a compro- 
mise, under the name of inspectors, and quasi presbyters, as a check upon 
the clergy ; but really to secure a majority on the Protestant side, in their 
new consistory at Geneva, where the Catholic clergy had defeated his efforts 
to reform, by their numbers. — How the expedient was successively adopted 
in other cantons, France, Netherlands, Scotland, and finally in America, 
in 1783. — But still many churches deny any scriptural ivarrant, and do as 
they always have done, choose and ordain deacons, and call them elders. 

When they who compose, execute the laws, their 
own practice, under the rules they have indited, is the 
fairest criterion of interpretation. If lay presbyters 
had no existence in the first ages, commencing in the 
days of the apostles, and extending through four cen- 
turies ; there is more than violent presumption, there 
is the strongest negative evidence, that they rest nei- 
ther on precept nor example, in the church of Christ. 

The government of the Christian church, from the 
death of the last apostle, unto that of the first Leo, 
after whom no change obtained, until the Reforma- 
tion, has been detailed ; that of the Waldenses, par- 
ticularly investigated ; and the common mistake 
with respect to their government exposed. They 
were covertly episcopal, though, after Claude, not 
papal ; but never presbyterial, prior to the Helvetic 
abjuration of popery. 



236 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

The Culdees, Colidei, worshippers of God, of Scotland 
and Ireland, the Scotia of ancient writers, have been 
passed in silence, because modern ideas of them rest 
only in vague traditions and opinions. The Celtic 
language had no alphabet. The Scots have no his- 
tory, written within a thousand years of the Christian 
era ; and little can be ferreted out of foreign authors. 
A sentence is found in Tertullian, and another in 
Prosper ; both uncertain. Gildas of England, A. D. 
560, represents them as episcopal. The earliest pe- 
riod assigned to the gospel among them by Bede of 
of 730, was, when it was every where episcopal. 
Their oldest historian was an arch-deacon of St. An- 
drews, in the eleventh century; their second was of 
the thirteenth. Both are lost. Hector Boethius, quot- 
ed by Blondel and Selden, has been convicted by 
Lloyd of disingenuousness. The credulity of these 
writers, as well as of Buchanan and Knox, is on this 
point visible. Let their veracity remain unimpeached ; 
belief is not knowledge, and neither can their offer, 
nor could our reception of it as testimony, make it 
truth. The Culdees who were removed, from Aber- 
riethy to St. Andrews, were monks ; and such were 
those at Armagh in Ireland. They may have been 
clerical, since in each place they elected arch-bishops; 
but they were Catholic, for they appealed to Rome. 
Columba, also, the apostle of the Picts, was, according 
to Bede, " a monk in priest's orders," and planted 
monasteries in Ireland and Britain. 

The Syrian Christians, the Culdees, and the Wal- 
denses, were all of episcopal origin. Old men have 
lived in every age, whose prudence and experience 
have been brought into requisition ; but of presbyters 
without authority to preach, neither a word nor an 
example is found, from the demise of the last apostle, 
unto the Reformation in Switzerland; they neither 
existed in the original form of government, nor in the 
secondary, which was parochial episcopacy ; nor in 



OJO' CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 237 

that which absorbed the rest, the diocesan, which be- 
came, so far as we yet know, literally Catholic. 

Such was Christendom until the period of the Refor- 
mation. The Eastern church speaks for itself. Rome 
had been sacked in 1527, and the pope captured; also, 
Charles V. as well as Francis I. had defied the enmity 
of the court of Rome ; nevertheless, they were both 
intolerant Papists, and maintained and enforced 
episcopal government. In England, the power of the 
pope had been aboHshed by parliament in 1532, yet the 
doctrines and ecclesiastic government, in other re- 
spects, remained the same. James Y. then reigned 
in Scotland, and died in 1542, a devoted Catholic, 
leaving his kingdom under papal administration. The 
Reformation commenced in Germany in 1517. The 
protestation of Saxony, E[esse, Anhalt, and fourteen 
cities, against the violent measures of the diet at Spice, 
was signed in 1529. The Augsburg confession was 
made and condemned in 1530. The Protestant de- 
fensive league was entered into at Smalkald in 1531. 
But it was the papal, not the episcopal government, 
that had as yet been renounced. In Switzerland, in 
1308, three cantons confederated: they afterwards 
subdued two others, and placed them on equal terms. 
In 1332, Lucerne acceded to the confederacy. In 
1353, Berne and Zug joined them. In 1383, they 
sustained themselves against the duke of Austria. In 
1471, they received the Grisons. In 1481, Friburg 
and Soleure, in 1501, Basil and Schafthausen, and 
in 1513, Appenzel were admitted. In the battle of 
Nancy, they defeated and slew Charles the bold. 

From 1526, when Zuinglius, the Swiss reformer, 
was excommunicated by a Catholic diet, unto the au- 
tumn of 1531, when his death was achieved, he offer- 
ing himself a victim in defence of liberty of conscience 
and the cause of the Reformation', the cantons of Zu- 
rich and Berne, with the towns of Basil and SchafF- 
hausen, maintained an unremitting struggle against 



238 THE PRIMITIVS GOVERNMENT 

the intolerance of five Catholic cantons, which those, 
who were neutral, were unable to repress. But al- 
though Zurich and Berne, and Basil, and Schaffhau- 
sen, had abohshed popery, and church temporalities 
within their territories, they had neither removed the 
subordination of ministers, nor created new offices in 
the church. At length, peace was restored, because 
their existence as free states was at last seen to depend 
upon their confederacy; and each was to adopt and 
maintain its own form of government, both civil and 
ecclesiastical ; and public safety to be bartered away 
no more for religious predilections. 

Calvin, passing by Geneva, in August, 1536, on his 
way northward, was importuned by some of the 
clergy, who were favorable to the reformation, to re- 
main, and aid them in preaching, and to become a 
reader in divinity. 

■ The season was favorable, the rulers and people 
having been exasperated by the conspiracy of their 
bishop with the duke of Savoy against their liberties ; 
who, being chargeable also with crimes of a private 
nature, had fled away a few months before. Although 
the preachers of Geneva, as well as Calvin, and all the 
people, were Catholic, they were not, in fact, under 
episcopal government ; and their submission to their 
pastors rested merely on persuasion. Of the six min- 
isters of Geneva, two only were favorable to the doc- 
trines of the reformation, and confidants of Calvin ; 
the rest being licentious, and inclined in heart to 
popery. But a majority of the people were, from ob- 
vious motives, haters of ecclesiastical fraud, sensuality, 
and oppression. In this state of vacillation and licen- 
tiousness, Calvin adopted the expedient of preparing 
an outline of doctrine and discipHne, to be sworn to 
and subscribed, as an antidote against popery. The 
obligation of an oath to adhere to the rules and doc- 
trines advised by a minority of the ministers, was a 
perilous, but decisive measure. Nevertheless, it was 
taken by a majority in the summer of 1537. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 239 

In the next year, Farell, Calvin, and Corald, aiming 
at a stricter discipline, declared they could not ad- 
minister the supper to people so irregular, and discor- 
dant among themselves. Advantage wsls immediately 
taken by the Catholics, and, within tv^o days, a gene- 
ral council having been convened, they voted, that 
those three ministers should leave the city. 

Calvin went to Zurich, and afterwards to Strasburg, 
where he became the pastor of a French church. 
Corald died. Farell retired to Neufchatel, and never 
consented to be again a minister at Geneva. Not- 
withstanding his exile, Calvin answered the letter of 
the bishop of Carpentras, written against the Reforma- 
tion at Geneva ; but would not hear the recantations 
of the Genevese. He refused to become a cypher 
among colleagues, and a people incompetent to dis- 
criminate between the discipline of Christ and papal 
tyranny.^ He attended by appointment the confe- 
rences at Worms and Ratisbon, with Melaricthon and 
others. Interest had been made in behalf of Geneva, 
and he was there pressed by the heads of the Reforma- 
tion to return to that canton, as a thing indispensable. 
He yielded, upon condition he should not be interrupt- 
ed in ecclesiastical discipline.^ Accordingly, in Sep- 
tember, 1541, he resumed his labors at Geneva, still 
subject to the claims of Strasburg, as Viret was to 
Berne, but the canton soon obtained his release. His 
colleagues professing reconciliation, and reaching out 
the hand, were suffered to remain ; yet were they an 
incumbrance, possessing neither zeal nor learning. 

To secure the ascendency of himself and Viret 
over their co-presbyters, was the first necessary ef- 
fort. " T detailed," he says, " to the senate my labor ; 

a — '* Locum sine ulla auctorltate teneam? Quid enim faciemus? 
Unde sumemus exordium, si res collapsas velimus instaurare? Si 
verbum fecero quod displicuerit, mox silentium imperabunt." 
Calv. epist. 12. 

^ — *' Suo ipsi judicio obstricti erunt, ne reclament ampllus, aut 
quicquam ad ordinem nostrum turbandum moveant." Epist. 25. 



240 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERIVMEJfT 

I showed them that the church could not stand, unless 
a certain form of government were appointed, such 
as is prescribed to us in the word of God, and was ob- 
served in the ancient church. I then touched certain 
heads, whence they might understand what I wished. 
But because the whole matter could not be explained, 
I begged that there should be given us those who 
might confer with us. Six were appointed to us. 
Articles will be written concerning the whole govern- 
ment of a church, which we shall afterwards lay be- 
fore the senate.'"^ 

The colleagues of Calvin and Viret " openly assent- 
ed, because they were ashamed to contradict in mat- 
ters so public," but they secretly persuaded the sena- 
tors not to abandon their power. They sought to 
*' escape that discipline and order which they could 
not bear," and to " weaken the authority of the 
church."^ 

Before this proposition, no canton in Switzerland 
had, so far as is known, even the idea of a lay officer 
in the church, but every presbyter and every deacon 
was a preacher of the gospel. This reference was, 
nevertheless, not wholly without a precedent ; for, in 
1532, a committee had been appointed by parliament 
in England, half laymen and half ecclesiastics, with 
Henry VIII. at its head, to decide upon certain eccle- 
siastical constitutions, which were alleged to involve 
temporal rights, and subject them to spiritual cen- 
sures. 

The committee at Geneva reported; laws were 
prescribed; and a constitution instituted by the Gene- 
ral Council, on the 20th November, ]541. The con- 
sistory was to contain a double number of laymen, 
chosen annually ; that is, at first it consisted of the six 
ministers, two laymen from the lesser senate, or coun- 
cil of twenty-five; and ten from the greater, or 

c Ep'ist. 50. d Epist. 54. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 241 

council of two hundred ; one of the Syndics presid- 
ing.^ 

That Calvin did afterwards attempt to justify the 
reception of lay presbyters, from the authority of the 
Scriptures, his writings evince. It is perfectly clear, 
nevertheless, that it was adopted at first by him as an 
expedient for reducing the church at Geneva to a 
state of disciphne, w^hich should secure the reforma- 
tion at that place. He probably preferred the name 
consistory, because the judicatory was composed of 
presbyters and laymen ; for since ordination is by lay- 
ing on of the hands of the presbytery, if those laymen 
were members of a presbytery, then they must impose 
hands, and give an authority which they possessed 
not. As if apprehensive, also, of the impropriety of 
denominating men presbyters who had received no 
ordination, he called them Inspectors ; and such they 
really were, not as sometimes it is explained, of the 
morals of the people, but evidently of the designs of 
the clergy, whose bishop had, within one year before 
the arrival of Calvin, committed treason against the 
canton, from a desire to bring them back to the chains 
of popery. 

Soon after he had gained a consistory, Calvin 
writes, " Now we have a judgment of presbyters, such 
as it is, and a form of discipline, such as the infirmity 
of the times could bear."^ 

e — "Non solos verbi minlstros sedere judices in consistorio; 
sed numerum duplomajorera, partim ex minori senatu, ex delectis 
senioribus esse, ut vocant, partim ex majore diligi, ad hsec unum 
fere ex syndicis praesldere." Epist. 167". "Deliguntur quotannis 
duodecera seniores; nempe ex minori senatu duo, reliqui exducen- 
tis, sive sint indigent sive ascriptitii cives. Qui probe et fide liter 
munere suo perfuncti sunt, loco non moventur; nisi, &c. Ante- 
quam ab electione sua sedeant, eorum nomina publice eduntur, ut 
siquis COS indignos cognoverit mature denunceat." Epist. 302. 
Southey, in «♦ The Book of the Church," 2d vol. p. 293, says, 
** Calvin himself was ** perpetual president;" an error perfectly 
in character for a mere compiler. 

f ** Nunc habemus qualecunque presbyterorum judicium, et 
formam disciplinae qualem ferebattemporum infirmitas." Epist. 54. 

w 



242 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

The presbyters here intended were the preachers, 
for he then thought of no others, and represents that 
he had succeeded in obtaining a tribunal, in w^hich the 
sentence of a presbytery might be judicially given, 
according to the original mode of ecclesiastical trials 
among the early Christians ; nevertheless, he qualifies 
his representation by the v^^ords " such as it is," not 
" such as they are," for the judgment to be rendered 
by the presbyters vrould be under the control of the 
duplicate rates of lay members in the consistory. Of 
this Calvin had, nevertheless, no reason to complain ; 
for v\^hat could he have effected without la.ymen, when 
the major number of the clergy were really Catholic, 
and hostile to a reformation, in doctrines, discipline, 
and manners ? They had caused his banishment, when 
his clerical minority was greater. They were secretly 
opposed to his return ; and even at the time of their 
public gratulations, resisted clandestinely the new 
government, " as rigid, tyrannical, and contrary to the ' 
practice of the other churches, which governed with- 
out such articles." 

The people were suspicious, for they had learned 
by experience to be jealous of clerical power, and 
were disposed to weaken it,^ alleging that " Moses, a 
secular prince, had prescribed to Aaron, and David to 
the priests." So arduous was the work of reforma- 
tion at Geneva, that Calvin declared that without 
Viret he could not preserve that church.'* 

In 1553, a question arose upon their articles of 
agreement; the senate claiming an appellative juris- 
diction in all causes decided by the consistory ; but 
the original intention was merely to secure, in certain 
cases, the intervention of civil authority. One Ber- 
teher had been suspended from the communion by 



S — *'T.aici — in potestate positi, si quando possint, nos, qui 
verbo prosumus, auctoritatemque nostram labefactare. Epist. 47. 

h «' Si me Viretus auferatur prorsus perii, nee hanc, ecclesiam 
salvamretinerep Otero." Epist. 39. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 243 

the consistory. He complained to the senate, who 
heard the reasons of the sentence, and confirmed it. 
Within half a year, he applied to them again for res- 
toration. Calvin was again heard. But the senate 
restored the offender. Calvin declared that he pre- 
ferred resignation to compliance. 

The senate of Geneva, in compromise, asked the 
advice of the senate of Zurich, on three questions : 
the first was concerning excommunication ; the se- 
cond, whether it could not be exercised in some other 
manner than by a consistory ? and the third was for 
advice how to act. To these it was answered by the 
other senate — " That they had heard of the consisto- 
rial rules of the church at Geneva, acknowledged 
them to be pious, and near to the prescript of the 
word of God; and, therefore, could not advise a 
change, especially at that period."^ That the pastors 
of the Protestant churches at Zurich, Berne, SchafF- 
hausen, and Basil, considered themselves to be deeply 
interested, at that time, in supporting Calvin, and ob- 
taining the approbation of their senates, appears by 
their letters. 

In 1554, he observed — " That the conflict was over, 
and peace restored ; after the church at Geneva had 
fluctuated, like Noah's ark upon the waters," yet that 
he was still apprehensive." That when invited into 
the public assembly, he had freely forgiven every one 
who had repented; but that he, being but one of the 
consistory, did not arrogate the right of representing 
the church."^ 

Calvin prevailed to estabhsh an order of govern 
ment, as nearly approximating the original form, as 



* — " Audlvisse nos de legibus ecelesiae conslstorialibus, et ag- 
noscere illas pias esse, et accedere ad verbi Dei prsescriptum: 
ideoque non videri admittendum, ut per inuovationem rautentur, 
hoe praesertim seeulo," &c. Epist 166. 

k " Tandem hue ventum est, ut inter se omnes reconciliaren- 
tur,"— "Acris erat dimicatio,— breyi taiijeij rarsus certandum 
erit." Epist 171. 



244 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

the dissolute morals, and fixed prejudices of the Gene^ 
vese against ecclesiastical tyranny, vi^ould allovv^r 

Of the original parity of presbyters, Calvin could 
not have been ignorant ; into that state the church of 
Geneva had providentially fallen by their abandon- 
ment of papal authority, and by the flight of their 
bishop. Of a re-establishment of episcopacy no one 
appears to have thought ; nor did there occur a sylla- 
ble about an inferior order of presbyters. He could 
have seen nothing of the kind in any Christian waiter 
before his day.^ The introduction of laymen into 
the church of Geneva, thus originated, not from a 
previous design to introduce an inferior kind of pres- 
byters, but from the exigencies of their condition. 
The success of the expedient, led others in similar 
circumstances, to the adoption of the same measure. 
Could they have so far counteracted the influence 
of the customs then prevalent, as to have separated 
the idea of a preacher from that of a deacon, and dis- 
tinguished their coadjutors by this name, instead of 
that of inspectors, they had not erred ; but dropping 
that office into practical oblivion, the next effort ap- 
pears to have been, to justify what they had done ; 
and as this task naturally devolved upon the inventor, 
so no man was better qualified to essay its accom- 
phshment, than Calvin. 

The first imitators of his consistorial government, 
were the neighboring cantons. He claimed his ow^n 



1 In his Institutes he speaks of but one order. Lib.iv. c. iv. I. 
*' Ex ordine presbyterorum partim eligebantur paslores et doc- 
tores: reliqua pars censurss morum et correctionibus prseerat,'* 
But in his commentaries, whichhe wrote in 1556, he says: (1 Tim. 
V. 17) — " Sane expopulo deligebantur graves et probjjti homines, 
qui una cum pastoribus communi consillo et authorltaie ecclesia, 
disciplinam administrarent, ac essent quasi censores moribus cor- 
rigendis.'* "Hunc morem Ambi-osius absolevisse conqueritur,** 
&c. Ambros. Oper. torn. iii. p. 276. But the writer (Hilary 
the deacon) is speaking- only of old age, in both sexes as honora- 
ble; and that, both in the synagogue and church, nothing was wont 
to be done without the advice of the Seniors. 



OF CHRlSTIAJf CHURCHES. 245 

invention, when a church sought his advice, upon the 
form they had taken from him,"" The clergy of 
Basil desired the same defence, which Calvin had 
made the condition of his return to Geneva. After 
the experiment had proved successful, Schaffhausen, 
Zurich, and Berne, adopted forms of church govern- 
ment of a kindred nature. 

The Scottish reformer visited Geneva in 1554, and 
became a disciple of Calvin, Among the exiles 
both at Frankfort and Geneva, Knox used, " The or- 
<ler of Geneva." 

In 1559, he left Geneva for the last time. In 1560, 
he was appointed, with others, to report in writing a 
book for common order and uniformity in religion, 
for the church of Scotland. 

In January following, the first book of discipline 
was approved conditionally by the Secret Council, 
and adopted in practice in the church, but was never 
formally established by an act of parHament. The 
superintendents were temporary officers, subject to 
the presbyteries, and without the claim either of dig- 
nity or permanency; the form was, therefore, mainly 
presbyterian, but rejected imposition of hands in or- 
dination. In 1562, the session of Edinburgh contained 
twelve elders, and sixteen deacons ; the latter of 
whom were allowed to teach. The first was super- 
seded by the second book of discipline, which restored 
imposition of hands in the ordination of preachers, and 
reduced deacons to their original duties. The second 
was agreed on by the General Assembly in 1578, and 
was, as well as the assembly itself, established by act 
of Parliament, at Edinburgh, in June, 1592. Thus 
was the office of lay elders brought from Geneva to 
Scotland. 

Whether Calvin " aimed at nothing else than ren- 
dering the government, discipline, and doctrine of Ge- 

™ **Certe nimix esset impudentlze, id ipsum improbare in vobis, 
quo nos tanquam bono et salutari utiraur." Epist. 55. 
w2 



246 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

neva, the mould and rule of imitation to the reformed 
churches throughout the world," as Mosheim alleges, 
it is not necessary here to affirm ; but that his learn- 
ing and talents rendered his example in church gov- 
ernment conspicuous, and gained him an influence in 
distant countries co-extensive with the Reformation, 
is certain. 

Geneva and Lausanne, from their contiguity to 
France, so greatly influenced the work of reforma- 
tion in that kingdom, that so early as 1550, the re- 
formed societies of that country were generally in 
communion with the church of Geneva, and had 
adopted the doctrines of Calvin. The Gallic confes- 
sion, exhibited to Charles IX. in 1561, thus expresses 
their views : " We believe, that the true church ought 
to be governed by that discipline which our Lord Je- 
sus Christ has decreed ; namely, that there should be 
in it pastors, presbyters or seniors, and deacons ; that 
purity of doctrine may be preserved, vices restrained, 
the poor and others in affliction provided for," &c. " 
In that same year, Charles IX. wrote to the council 
of Geneva, complaining of their having received and 
fostered the enemies and disturbers of France. 

Calvin and his colleagues were for that cause sum- 
moned before them. They acknowledged, that the 
pastors of the canton had sent pious men to regulate 
the churches in France, but upon their solicitation, 
and not to sow trouble. Also, Calvin professed 
himself ready to answer before the king ; but the 
matter was not prosecuted further. Nevertheless, his 
letters show an extensive influence upon the reforma- 
tion in France. 

In the next century, when the subject of church 
government was better understood, the churches 
were left by the acts of the synod of Charenton in 
1645, to their choice on the subject of elders. "We 



n D. XXIX. — "111 ea sint pastorcs, presbyteri sive scniores, et 
diaconi," he. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 247 

agree the office of deacon is of divine appointment, 
and that it belongs to their office to receive, lay out, 
and distribute the church's stock to its proper use, by 
the direction of the pastor, and the brethren, if need 
be. And whereas divers are of opinion, that there 
is also the office of ruhng elders, who labor not in 
word and doctrine, and others think otherwise, we 
agree, that this difference make no breach among 
us."° 

Calvin's discipline spread from France to the Neth- 
erlands. For these churches, when scattered by per- 
secution, held a synod at Emden in 1569, at which it 
was agreed — " That in the French congregations, the 
Geneva catechism might be held ; and in the Dutch, 
that of Heidelberg." Also, they declared that, " No 
church shall have, or exercise dominion over another, 
and no minister, elder, or deacon, shall bear rule over 
others of the same degree ;" which is Calvin's order. 

The first presbytery erected in England, was con- 
vened in 1572, when eleven elders were chosen, and 
their proceedings w^ere entitled, " The orders of 
Wardsworth ;" imitating the style of the order of the 
church at Geneva. 

These Presbyterians chiefly consisted of exiles, 
who had returned from Geneva, Frankfort, &c. to 
England, after the death of the bloody Mary ; and 
conformed more nearly to the order of Calvin than 
Knox was able to do ; having neither Synods nor a 
General Assembly. The Independents, whether origi- 
nating in England in the end of the sixteenth, or in 
Holland early in the seventeenth century, and at 
whatsoever period they adopted their charitable regu- 
lation, that neither the adoption nor rejection of the 
office of lay elders, should make any breach among 
them, have certainly, so far, yielded to the influence of 
the polity of Calvin. 

In the Presbyterian church in the United States, a 

o Quick, p. 472. Third synorl, &c, ch. xiii. s. 5. 



248 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

similar compromise has obtained ; and every congre- 
gation is at liberty to have elders, or deacons, or both ; 
and to elect them in their own way. The ordination 
of whom is without imposition of hands, because it is 
so in Scotland ; and Knox omitted the rite because he 
observed it was so at Geneva ; or the novelty of such 
an ordination, like that of a presbyter, to constitute 
him a bishop, might have produced the delay in its 
adoption, lest suspicion and investigation should have 
been awakened ; and the authority and previous ex- 
ample should have been demanded. In which event, 
the one could no more be supported than the other. 
If they be presbyters, they should receive ordination 
by a presbytery. But we charge them as deacons, 
and they do the work of such. Yet even thus, the 
mode of their ordination in the Presbyterian church 
merits a revision. 

It has now fairly resulted from this investigation, 
that a special form of ecclesiastical government was 
adopted by the Genevese at the Reformation ; not 
because it was found by Scriptural precept or example 
to have been the original apostolic scheme ; but be- 
cause the nearest approach to the true one, which the 
pecuHar circumstances of the canton, and the exigen- 
cies of the times would admit. The learned and pru- 
dent reformer has shown, that he did wish a presbyte- 
ry, but a consistory was all that he could obtain ; for 
the reformation of the canton was seen to be imprac- 
ticable, unless his party could have the ascendency in 
clerical councils; and this was impossible, without the 
introduction of laymen. Yet this design was not 
prominent ; they were associated as inspectors of the 
conduct, and so as a defence against the wiles of the 
ecclesiastics. 

Had Calvin justified the expedient by the necessity 
of the case, he would have betrayed his design, and 
prevented others from the benefit of his example ; but 
he gave ease to his conscience, and plausibility to his 
conduct, by seeking a defence from the Scriptures. 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 249 

And his opinion was readily adopted, because eccle- 
siastics, a few reformers excepted, were every where 
inimical to the Reformation, and disposed to rivet the 
chains of papal despotism. It was natural, therefore, 
that "the pattern on the mount," as it has been called, 
which had proved so successful at Geneva, should be 
followed by others, and become a similar defence 
against ecclesiastical fraud and oppression. 



TO J. L. 



The argument from the Scriptures has not yet ar- 
rived; matters of fact, accruing since the sacred 
record, have been the inquiry. Hilary's words were 
adduced only as testimony of the state of the church 
then present : his opinion of things prior to his time 
would be mere hearsay. When we take up the holy 
Word, it will speak for itself; no interpreter can be 
trusted, but Hooker will not be forgotten on Rom. xii. 
7, 8. The fathers are miserable commentators; 
Hilary not excepted, though without lawn-sleeves ; 
yet are they, from the necessity of the case, competent 
witnesses of facts, which were under their own sight 
and hearing. 

Hilary the Younger, represented the same kind of 
seniors to be in every nation, and in the synagogue, 
which were in the church ; (Ambros. tom. iii. p. 276 ;) 
they were consequently not officers. Also, by censur- 
ing, not the omission of an office, but that pride, 
which, by neglect of consulting the old men, suffered 
the custom to become obsolete, he supposed the seniors, 
of whom he spoke, still to exist, who were, of course,, 
laymen. J. L. admits, that these seniors were " not a 
third order in the church," and J. P. W. asks no more. 
That " these elders — were the deacons," J. L. is at 



250 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

liberty to prove, if he can ; could he be successful, the 
discovery vi^ould be some excuse for all of us in the 
Presbyterian church, who ordain and charge men as 
deacons, because the w^ord is so ; and afterwards call 
them elders, because such is the custom. 

What J. L. demands has been already shown.P The 
exaltation of servants, Staxovot, to the office of teachers ; 
and the wisdom of Calvin in obliterating, rather than 
degrading, deacons ; when, availing himself of the an- 
archy of his canton, he placed laymen as inspectors, but 
really for protectors, in his consistory, have already 
passed in detail. 

P *' AiciKOVoi SiSouc-iv tKcia-Ttti Tav TTctpovlav /uiJctKajSiiv etTTO tcv 
ip(^itpi(rlnQivlcg aplov," &c. Justin Martyr, Apol. i. § 86. By the 
synod of Ancyra, A. D. 314, it was decreed, that those deacons 
who succumbed to persecution, should not aplov ij Trorit^tcv itv!t<pegitv 
K Kyipva-a-iiv, &c. Canon M. " Diaconi ergo ordo est, accipere a 
sacerdote et sic dare plebi." Ambros. torn. iv. p. 779. 



SECTION XXV. 



The primitive state of the church having leen sought from credible witnesses of 
Vie facts, without regard to their opinions, or hearsays; and the changes 
marked from the commencement of the second to the termination of the fifth 
century, and having seen the successive introduction of parochial and dioce- 
san episcopacy, the canonical ordination and human authority of the latter, 
and the creation of quasi presbyters by Calvin, we are prepared better to un- 
derstand the New Testament by the rejection of these novelties. But bishops 
are by some supposed to be the successors of the evangelists, and Timothy is 
made bishop of Ephesus. — How Timothy received authority aiid for what 
purpose. An evnngelist before he came to Ephesus. He was left by Paul 
at Ephesus, the last time Paul was there, Timothy having returned thither af- 
ter Paul's frst letter to the Corinthians. Timothy left Ephesus after or- 
daining presbyters there, and came to Paul in Macedonia, before his return 
to Jerusalem and first imprisonment. The first letter to Timothy was before 
he left Ephesus to go to Paid in Macedonia, and instructed him in choosing 
and ordaining the presbyters. He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem and 
Rome, where he was during the Apostle's first imprisonment. The second 
letter to Timothy was written during the second imprisonment, and disco- 
vers that Timothy was not then at Ephesus; it calls him to Rome; and it 
no where appears that Timothy ever returned to Ephesus after ordaining 
the elders there. 



The facts in the history of the church, which might 
aid us ill deciding upon the nature of the offices men- 
tioned in the New Testament, having been investigat- 
ed ; we are prepared to inquire into the written word, 
on the matters of church government. Akhough the 
particular form is but a mean to an end, and of no vi- 
tal importance ; yet it is expedient to defend the cause 
which God honors, against those exclusive pretensions 
which have been founded in usurpation. 

Two things having been established; that episco- 
pacy, whether parochial or diocesan, was not in exis- 



252 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

tence at the commencement of the age which next fol- 
lowed the days of the apostles, but arose afterwards 
step by step ; and that lay presbyters were never heard 
of till necessity drove Calvin to the expedient; they 
ought to have no place in the interpretation of the 
New Testament. 

But it so happens, that the conformity in duties be- 
tween the diocesan bishop and the apostle and primi- 
tive evangelist ; and the contrast of the oversight of 
an individual church by its presbyters, with an episco- 
pate in after ages ; are now adopted as arguments to 
prove, contrary to the verity of facts, that diocesan 
bishops are actually the successors in office of the 
apostles and evangelists, and not of the presbyters in 
the churches. Thus Timothy and Titus are exhibited 
as scriptural examples of bishops, though never once 
designated by that name in the sacred records. Titus 
is described by Paul as his ^^partner''^ and '^fellow-la- 
borer,^^^ Of Timothy he also speaks, as his ^^fellow- 
laborer,^^ and an "evangelist.^'^ Their work appears 
to have been to ordain bishops, in the sense of presby- 
ters. Timothy was invested with an office, "5y prophe- 
cy with the imposition of the hands of the presbytery." '^ 
And in another epistle, Paul speaks of the "gift of God 
which was in him by the impositio?i of his hands."^ These 
texts, we have seen, were differently understood in 
successive ages, according to the progressive advances 
of episcopacy.^- 

This commission was given him before Paul had 
visited Ephesus, and without relation to the people of 
one place more than another. It was in its nature uni- 
versal, extending alike to the whole church, and con- 



^ Kotvavos ffjios KAt iic vfAAs cuvipyos. 2 Cor. viii. 23. 

b 'Bpyov TTotmrov ivnyhxialov. 2 Tim. iv. 5. 

c A/jt 7rf:o<p>iliixi luiiA iTTiQio-icos Twv X^^?^'' '^pi'f'^vliptov. 1 Tim. 
iv. 14. 

^ X^picTfAct Tov Qiouy i</li\i iV <rot StA Tits i7riQs(rfai( Tav X*'?'"^ 
fxov. 2 Tim, i. 6. 

e Vide Section xxiii. 



OF CHRISTIAN- CHURCHES. 253 

ferring every power necessary to planting, watering, 
and governing the churches, wherever he should 
come, if not superseded by the presence of an apostle. 
The office was like those of apostle and prophet, 
extraordinary and unconnected with any particular 
charge, Ephes. iv. 11. But in whatsoever church he 
preached, he could as evangelist ordain pastors, or 
bishops, or there was no propriety in the caution, "lay 
hands suddenly on no man." This office was superior 
to that of "pastors even teachers." 

EvangeUsts were not personally instructed and com- 
missioned by Christ; nor had they the extraordinary 
gifts in equal extent, nor the unerring assistance, or in- 
spiration of the apostles, for the writings of Mark and 
Luke were received upon the authority of Peter and 
Paul. 

That Paul and Timothy w^ere together at Ephesus, 
and that Paul left him there when he went on some oc- 
casion into Macedonia, may be plainly inferred from 
1 Tim. i. 3. "I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, 
when I went into Macedonia." The time to which 
there is here an allusion is the more easily ascertained, 
because the apostle is recorded to have been twice 
only at Ephesus ; on the first occasion, he merely 
called on his voyage from Corinth and Jerusalem ; on 
the second, he went from Ephesus into Macedonia, ac- 
cording to the words of the epistle. 

That Timothy was left at Ephesus, when Paul, ex- 
pelled by the riot, went into Macedonia, obtains satis- 
factory proofs. Before he wrote his first epistle to 
the Corinthians, Paul sent Timothy and Erastus into 
Macedonia, but he himself remained in Asia for some 
time. Acts xix. 22. 1 Cor. iv. 17. xvi. 10. In the first 
letter to the Corinthians, which he wrote at Ephesus, 
and sent by Titus to Corinth, he mentioned his purpose 
of coming to them, but not immediately; of which 
Luke also informs us. Acts xix. 21, and desired them, 
if Timothy came to them, 1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11, to con- 

X 



254 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

duct him forth in peace, that he might come to Paul, 
then at Ephesus, for he looked for him, with the bre- 
thren. When he closed that letter, he was expecting 
Timothy's return, which that letter might also have 
hastened. Paul remained at Ephesus, on this visit, the 
space of three years. Acts xx. 31. There is therefore 
no reason to suppose, that he was disappointed in his 
expectation of the arrival of Timothy from Corinth at 
Ephesus, before he went into Macedonia ; and if so, 
he might have left him there, as he at some period 
certainly did. 1 Tim. i. 3. He had intended to go by 
Corinth into Macedonia, 2 Cor. i. 15, 16, but changed 
his mind and went by Troas thither. 1 Cor. xvi. 5 ; 2 
Cor. ii. 12, 13. Whilst in Macedonia, he wrote his 
first letter to Timothy, for he proposed to him to re- 
main at Ephesus until he should call there on his way 
to Jerusalem. 1 Tim. i. 3; iii. 14, 15. The w^ords im- 
ply, that Paul might tarry some time ; and that he did 
so before he went into Greece, is fairly imphed in the 
expression, "And when he had gone over those parts, 
and given them much exhortation, he came into 
Greece." Acts xx. 2. Timothy w^as advised, sohcited, 
or besought {rtapsxa'kTiao) to abide still at Ephesus, which 
gave him liberty to exercise his discretion, but several 
motives must have influenced him to go to the apostle. 
The enemies at Ephesus were numerous and violent; 
Timothy was young; his affection for Paul ardent; 
the request of Paul tfiat he should abide at Ephesus 
was not peremptory ; and Paul told him he expected 
to tarry a long time. Also Timothy had been, from 
their commencement, famiharly acquainted whh the 
churches in Macedonia and Greece. Accordingly w^e 
find Timothy in Macedonia w^hen Paul wrote his se- 
cond epistle to the Corinthians. 1 Cor. i. 1. The 
apostle w^ent from Macedonia into Greece, Acts xx. 2, 
as he had promised in that letter, chap. xiii. 1, and 
abode there three months. Acts xx. 3. Timothy was 
with him at Corinth, for he sends his salutations to the 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 255 

Romans, Rom. xvi. 21, in that famous epistle written 
from thence/ 

That there was sufficient time for Paul to have writ- 
ten from Macedonia to Timothy at Ephesus, and for 
Timothy to have spent some months at Ephesus, before 
*he came to Paul in Macedonia, appears from the time 
he waited for Titus at Troas, 2 Cor. ii. 12, 13, his de- 
/ termination not to go to Corinth till he could do it 
^without heaviness, 2 Cor. ii. 1, his distress in Macedo- 
/ nia before Titus arrived, 2 Cor. vii. 5, and his success 
in raising charities for the saints in Judea, 2 Cor. viii. 
2, 3 ; ix. 4. He had intended to tarry at Ephesus un- 
• til Pentecost, 1 Cor. xvi, 8, but went sooner, Acts xx. 1. 
He passed on to Jerusalem at another Pentecost, Acts 
' XX. 16; all which time he was in Macedonia, except 
three months. Acts xx. 3. 

That Paul expected to spend so much time in Ma- 
cedonia, and Greece, may be collected from his inti- 
mation 1 Cor. xvi. 6, that he might spend the winter 
with the Corinthian church. The apostle's purpose 
of sailing from Corinth was disappointed by the insid- 
iousness of his own countrymen ; he therefore went 
up into Macedonia again, that he might pass over to 
Troas wdth his companions. Timothy was among 
those who crossed first. Acts xx. 3, 5. Paul's disap- 
pointment in sailing from Corinth, and his wish to 
reach Jerusalem by Pentecost, prevented the call he 
intended at Ephesus, 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15, but he landed 
at Miletus, and sent for the elders of the church at 
Ephesus. 

The directions of the apostle in the third chapter of 
the first epistle to Timothy, fairly imply that he had 
left the church at Ephesus, according to his usual prac- 
tice, without officers ; for he gives this evangelist not 
a new commission, he already bad power to ordain, 
but instructions as to the choice of bishops, that is pres- 

<■ Compare Acts xviii. 2, with Rom. xvi. 3. Vide Acts 19, xviii. 
26 1 Cor. xvi. 19. 



25G THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

byters, and deacons. These had been complied with 
before he landed at Miletus. Acts xx. 17. This record 
of the existence of elders at Ephesus, compared with 
the directions given to Timothy, not only renders it 
probable that Timothy had ordained them, but fortifies 
the presumption that the first epistle to Timothy was 
wu'itten in Macedonia, before this visit to Jerusalem, 
and consequently before his imprisonment. 

The language "I going {nop^vofiBvoi) into Macedonia, 
besought thee to abide still at Ephesus/' did not form a 
permanent connexion between Timothy and Ephesus. 
At the very greatest extent, the instructions given in 
this letter were of a continuance only till Paul sh'ould 
come to him (?wj tpzofial) 1 Tim. iv. 13; iii. 14. But it 
is certain, that Timothy did not remain at Ephesus, 
till Paul passed on his way to Jerusalem. 

The second epistle of Timothy will prove itself writ- 
ten by Paul when a prisoner at Rome; and at least es- 
tablishes the absence of the evangelist from his spirit- 
ual father, at the time it was written. But he was at 
Rome in the time of the first imprisonment, as has 
been proved by his having been joined with Paul in 
the letters to the Colossians, PhiHppians and Philemon. 
Demas and Mark were also there in the first imprison- 
ment, Col. iv. 10.4, but absent at the writing of the se- 
cond to Timothy. 2 Tim. iv. 10, 11. 

It is therefore an error to suppose it to have been 
written before the epistle to the Colossians, Philippians, 
and Philemon, during the first imprisonment. Also in 
2 Tim. iv. 20, Paul tells him, Erastus abode at Corinth; 
but this needed not to have been told to Timothy, if 
Paul meant that Erastus abode at Corinth, when he 
went to Jerusalem, and so to Rome, for Timothy 
was then with him, and must have known the circum- 
stance, had it been so. In like manner he says, ibid. 
"Trophimus have I left at Miletum, sick." But Tro- 
phimus was not left at any place on the voyage to Je- 
rusalem, for he was there and the occasion of the jea- 
lousies of the Jews. Acts xxi. 29. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 257 

These two facts, compared with this, which appears 
in the epistle, that it was written by Paul a prisoner at 
Rome, afford sufficient certainty, that there was a se- 
cond imprisonment when this letter w^as written. 

But it by no means follows, that Timothy was at 
Ephesus when the second epistle was written. This 
ought not to be assumed, but shown. If Timothy was 
then at Ephesus, why should he have been told. "I 
have sent Tychicus to Ephesus?" 2 Tim. iv. 12. He 
must have arrived at that place before the letter, and 
the fact could have been then known. Also Tychicus 
needed no introduction to Timothy. Had Timothy 
been at Ephesus, Paul w^ould not have sent him to 
Troas, for articles he had left there. It appears more 
probable, that Timothy was, at the time the epistle was 
sent to him, at Troas, or in the neighbourhood of that 
place. The salutations will not establish the destina- 
tion of the epistle. Onesiphorus resided in Asia, but 
the particular place of his abode is not known. He 
helped Paul both at Ephesus, and Rome. Also Aquila, 
who had resided at Rome, at Corinth, at Ephesus, and 
again at Rome, was a native of Pontus, on the margin 
of the Euxine. Trophimus, whom Paul had left at 
Miletum, was an Ephesian. Acts xxi. 29. Miletus 
was near Ephesus, and Timothy would have known 
the facts, unless Miletum in Crete was the place. 

If Timothy was not at Ephesus when the second 
letter was written to him, there is no evidence of his 
being in that city, after Paul's first imprisonment. But 
if he had been at Ephesus, he must have then left it, 
the letter calhng him to Rome, and the sacred records 
speak not of his return to that city. The second epis- 
tle assigns to Timothy no other duties than those pro- 
per to his general office of Evangelist ; and bears no 
relation to a particular oversight of any church or 
churches. 

Some writers suppose that Paul, when he landed at 
Miletus on a subsequent voyage to Jerusalem, left Ti- 
2x 



258 ' THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

mothy with the elders of the church at Ephesus, "to 
govern them in his absence." But nothing of the kind 
was spoken on the occasion ; and instead of a tempo- 
rary absence, Paul assured the elders they should "see 
his face no more." In 1 Tim. i. 3, it is not said, "when 
I went to Jerusalem," but expressly, "I besought thee 
to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedoniay 
Also it has been asserted, that the apostle, having 
placed Timothy at Ephesus prior to his first imprison- 
ment, ''wrote both his epistles to Timothy while a pri- 
soner at Rome." But Timothy was with Paul at 
Rome during a part of the first imprisonment, for he 
is joined in the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, 
and Philemon. Salutations also might have been ex- 
pected in the first epistle to Timothy, had it been writ- 
ten from Rome,as in those to the Philippians,Colossians, 
Philemon, and the Hebrews. He was indeed absent 
from Rome during a part of the time of the first im- 
prisonment, but Paul expected his return, Heb. xiii. 23, 
and so far was he from hoping to come unto Timothy 
shortly, as expressed in 1 Tim. iii. 14, he promises, if 
Timothy come shortly to Rome, with him to visit the 
Hebrews. Also it seems strange, if Timothy had been 
at Ephesus when the epistle to the Ephesians was sent 
by Tychicus, Ephes. vi. 21, that no notice whatev^er 
should have been taken of the beloved youth. 

Another hypothesis is, that Paul, when the Jews de- 
terred him from sailing from Corinth, and he deter- 
mined to go through Macedonia to Jerusalem, be- 
sought Timothy to abide still at Ephesus ; to which, 
when Timothy agreed, he went forward to Troas, 
with Aristarchus and the rest; and whilst waiting 
there for Paul, Timothy received the first epistle from 
the apostle, written in Macedonia. But this is a de- 
parture from the correct meaning of the passage, 
which is that Paul besought Timothy ?tpocr^iftmt, to con- 
tinue or remain at the place where Timothy was at 
the time he was thus entreated. Those who went be- 



OF CHRISTIAN" CHURCHES. 259 

fore with Timothy to Troas are represented to have 
accompanied Paul into Asia. Acts xx. 4, 5. This cir- 
cumstance renders it an improbable supposition, that 
Paul should write so long and important a letter to his 
fellow traveller, whom he must overtake in a few days; 
and wholly unaccountable, that he should say in the 
letter, 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15, "these things write I unto you, 
hoping to come unto thee shortly ; but if I tarry long," 
&c. That Paul should have thus purposed to come to 
Timothy unto Ephesus, but really at Troas ; and in a 
few weeks afterwards, without any apparent cause for 
a change of views, should have said at Miletus to the 
elders of the church of Ephesus, "I know that ye all 
shall see my face no more," Acts xx. 25, exhibits a 
fluctuation approximating versatility. If Timothy was 
on this occasion left with the officers of the church at 
Ephesus, and especially, if he was to be thenceforth 
their diocesan bishop, it is strange that not a word of 
either of those circumstances should have been men- 
tioned to those elders. But so far was the apostle from 
mentioning their subordination unto, or support of the 
authority of young Timothy, that he enjoins them; 
"take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock over 
which the Holy Ghost hath made you hrtiaxoTiov^ bishops, 
to feed the church of God^"* &c. But as not a word is 
said of leaving Timothy at Miletus so it is improbable 
that he should have parted from Paul there, because 
he appears to have been of the company of the apos- 
tle, when he arrived at Rome, where he is joined with 
him in the letters which have been mentioned. 

Others allege, that Paul visited Ephesus after his 
first imprisonment, left Timothy there, went into Ma- 
cedonia, and from thence wrote to him his first letter. 
They build upon the circumstances, that whilst at Rome 
he had written to Philemon to prepare him lodgings at 
Colosse ; and that he had told the Philippians, by let- 
ter, he trusted he should shortly come to them. 



260 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

This opinion is much more respectable than either 
of the former ; and aUhough several of the fathers have 
positively asserted, v^hat is incompatible with it, that 
Paul went into Spain, after his first imprisonment, ac- 
cording to his purpose expressed Rom. xv. 28, yet, 
however credible these holy men were, their conjec- 
tures deserve often but httle regard. That Paul was 
at Philippi after his imprisonment is probable, because 
he left Erastus at Corinth. 2 Tim. iv. 20. Also he may 
have been at Colosse, if he left Trophimus at Miletus ; 
but the place was Miletum, ibid. He entertained a 
purpose subsequent to those, of visiting Judea with 
Timothy. Heb. xiii. 23. This may have been first-ac- 
complished, and Timothy left in the neighbourhood of 
Troas, where he remained till the second epistle was 
sent to him. But if these purposes were effectuated, 
which is matter of uncertainty, there is not a word to 
prove even an intention to visit Ephesus. The letter 
to the Ephesians neither mentions Timothy, nor any 
coming of Paul. But Tychicus, a faithful minister of 
the Lord, and companion of the apostle was named as 
sent to them. Ephes. vi. 21. To the Ephesians Paul 
had said, that he knew they should "see his face no 
more," and it is no where shown that he did. The 
supposition that nevertheless Paul afterwards went to 
Ephesus with Timothy, left him there, with the request 
to tarry till he should return to him, and then went into 
Macedonia, and wrote his first epistle to Timothy, is 
entirely gratuitous and without the least reason appear- 
ing in any exigencies of the Ephesian church ; which 
had had three years of Paul's labors,and had been after- 
wards long blessed with the regular administration of 
the ordinances by pastors of their own, besides help 
from Tychicus, and perhaps others. 

If Paul constituted Timothy bishop of Ephesus, it is 
an affirmative, and ought to be proved. But Paul tells 
the presbyters of Ephesus at Miletus that the Holy 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 261 

Ghost had made them bishops {srnoxoTtovi) of that church. 
Those elders had previously received the powers 
which were necessary to ordaining others; on 
Timothy a similar presbytery laid their hands at his 
ordination. If this circumstance will not show that 
a presbytery could have ordained an evangelist, an 
apostle not being present, because evangelists were 
extraordinary officers of a higher grade; yet it must 
prove that a presbytery have some power to ordain. 
They were the highest fixed officers in a church, and 
the power of ordination was necessary to their succes- 
sion. They could not have been appointed coadjutors to 
Timothy, in the ordination of themselves. And it does 
not appear they were ordained before the riot, when 
he was left at Ephesus. If thus there were no officers 
in that church when Paul left it, the direction to Timo- 
thy, who was an evangelist, to ordain bishops, that is, 
elders in Ephesus, was to do no more than his duty ; 
which, when accomplished in any church, gave such 
bishops, or elders, power to continue the succession. 
If the presbyters of particular churches had not the 
power of ordination, there has been no succession in 
the church of Christ since the deaths of the apostles 
and evangelists; for their offices expired with them 
and there were no officers of a higher order. The 
office of Timothy was given to him prior to his 
visiting Ephesus. The duty assigned him was af- 
terwards declared to be the work of an evangelist. 
2 Tim. iv. 5. His appointment to Ephesus was tem- 
porary, being Hmited, at the farthest, to the time when 
Paul should come to him; but an earlier period of its 
termination was evidently left to his discretion, which 
he exercised by coming to Paul into Macedonia. 
Thus there w^as a disruption of the connexion, if any 
had been fixed; but none such was intended; the 
epistle was neither a commission, nor an ordination, 
but a mere letter of instruction, directing him in the 



262 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

discharge of his high and important office of evan- 
gehst. 

If Timothy returned to Ephesus from Rome, 
which is not recorded in the Scriptures, and died 
there, it will not establish that he ever exercised^ 
or had any other office, than that of an evan- 
gelist. 



SECTION XXVI. 



TITUS WAS ALSO AN EXTRAORDINARY OFFICER, AND NOT A BISHOP 
OF CRETE. 

He ucas Paul's attendant or evangelist, before the Gospel was carried to Crete. 
— ApoUos IS named in the epistle to Titus, but as they first saw Apollos on 
Paul's last visit to Ephesus, it was written after that visit. — Every move- 
. 77ieni of Paul, from the riot at Ephesus unto his first imprisonment, is given, 
and events show he did not leave him in Crete before he icent to Rome. — His 
letters from Rome discover that Titus was not with him during his first im- 
prisonment, and of course he could not have left him in Crete on, his retrtm 
from Rome. — Titus had been xoith Paid at Jerusalem, but after separating 
from Barnabas, he was no more with Paul till Jiis second visit to Ephesiis ; 
probably he was sent with the letter to the Galatians, and met Paul at Ephe- 
sus on his last visit there, from whence Paul sent him to Corinth, and he 
came to Paul in Macedonia, and was sent back to Corinth. — At some 
period after his first imprisonment., they may have gone to Crete ; and Titus 
being left there, received this letter as a discharge from thence, when a substi- 
tute arrived. — He loas at Nicopolis one winter with Paul ; arid the Scrip- 
tures leave him in Dalmatia. 



When- Paul and Titus first went to Crete, before 
any church had been planted on the island, Titus must 
have been an attendant upon Paul, and a preacher, 
without any relation unto, or connexion with, the Cre- 
tans. Some have been of opinion, that Paul, after his 
liberation, sailed from Rome into Asia, and taking 
Crete in his way, left Titus there. But it does not 
appear, that Titus went to Rome with Paul, when he 
was carried a prisoner to be tried by Caesar. Nor 
do any of the letters written from Rome, during that 
imprisonment, to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philip- 
pians, or Philemon, mention Titus, or even imply that 
he was at Rome. On the contrary, his presence with 



264 THE PRIMITIVE GOVEEN-MENT 

Paul is excluded by Colossians iv. 11, " These only are 
my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which 
have been a comfort unto me;" and Titus is not 
named as one of them. 

That Paul purposed to visit Colosse, soon after his 
liberation, appears from his letter to Philemon, ver. 22. 
But the bespeaking of lodgings there would have been 
premature, if it had been intended consequent upon 
the arduous labors of planting churches in Crete. The 
epistle to Philemon preceded the letter to the Hebrews ; 
in that, Timothy was joined ; in this, he is mentioned 
as absent; "with whom if he come shortly," xiii..23, 
Paul promised to see those to whom the letter was 
sent. He had gone, probably, to Philippi, Phil. ii. 19. 
This purpose of visiting Judea was, therefore, after 
his direction to Philemon to procure him lodgings at 
Colosse. Accordingly, some have imagined, that 
Paul went, with Timothy and Titus, to Crete, where 
he left Titus, and proceeded to Judea, returned 
through Syria and Cilicia, tarried some time at Co- 
losse, wrote from thence to Titus in Crete to meet him 
at Nicopolis, came to Ephesus, left Timothy there, and 
proceeded to Macedonia. But neither does Titus ap- 
pear to have been with Paul at Rome, during his im- 
prisonment, nor is there the least evidence that such a 
journey was ever undertaken or accompHshed. It 
was the opinion of Pool, that Paul left Titus in Crete, 
when he touched there a prisoner, on his passage to 
Rome. But as Titus is not named in the enumeration 
of either of the companies who left Macedonia for 
Jerusalem ; nor mentioned in the history of their go- 
ing to, remaining at, or coming from Jerusalem ; nor 
spoken of in the account of the voyage, two years 
afterwards accomplished from Cassaiia to Rome, this 
opinion seems unfounded. It does not even appear, 
that Paul landed at Crete on that voyage. 

Many have thought Paul, at or prior to the period 
of his separation from Barnabas, sailed with Silas and 
Titus from Cilicia to Crete, and returning to the 



or CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 265 

Asiatic continent, left Titus to perfect the settlement 
of the churches. But there is no hint of such a thing 
in the Acts or any of the Epistles. Yet the native 
language of Titus was that of the inhabitants of Crete. 
Also, Titus, who was in years and office older than 
Timothy, and commanded more respect, must have 
been as competent for that service, as he was to settle 
the differences in the Corinthian church, or to preach 
the gospel among the rude inhabitants of Dalmatia. 
But conjectures are as unprofitable, as endless. Paul 
took Titus to Jerusalem with him and Barnabas, when 
the exoneration of Gentile converts was determined. 
Gal. ii. 1, and though a Gentile, he was not required 
to be circumcised, ver. 3. But we cannot collect 
from the Scriptures, that Titus was with Paul from 
the time of his separation from Barnabas, during all 
his travels through Asia, Macedonia, and Greece, his 
subsequent voyage to Jerusalem, and return through 
the Asiatic churches ; nor until he came to Ephesus, 
when Apollos, from Corinth, met him at that place 
But Titus was then at Ephesus, for Paul sent him 
thence with his first epistle to the Corinthians. He 
might have been previously sent with the epistle to 
the Galatians, and when Paul came to them, have 
gone down with the apostle and his company to 
Ephesus. 

There is also great difficulty in ascertaining when 
the epistle to Titus was written. Some place it before 
the imprisonment of Paul, as Lightfoot, Lardner, and 
other learned critics. But though we will neither 
mark the precise time for Paul's going with Titus into 
Crete, nor the particular winter which they spent to- 
gether at NicopoHs after the recall of Titus from that 
island ; yet it appears to be correct to assign them, 
and the writing of the epistle to Titus, which was not 
from NicopoHs, Titus iii. 12, to a period after the apos- 
tle's enlargement at Rome, and prior to his return. 

From the direction. Tit. iii. 13, to bring Apollos, 
Paul was then acquainted with him, but he was not 

y 



^Q6 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

prior to his second coming to Ephesus, (Acts xviii. 24 
— 28. xix. 1. 1 Cor. xvi. 12.) It is certain, therefore, 
that the epistle to Titus was not written before that 
period. From the apostle's arrival at Ephesus until 
the termination of his first imprisonment,^ there was 
no possibility of leaving Titus in Crete, Tit. i. 5, ex- 
cept he landed a prisoner there on his voyage to Rome, 
and had Titus then with him, neither of which ap- 
pears. 

a This portion of the apostle's labors, being* usually misrepre- 
sented, maybe understood by any who will open unto the follow- 
ing" proofs : 

From Ephesus, Panl, having sent Erastus and Timothy -into 
Macedonia, Acts xix. 22; 1 Cor. iv. 17, xvi. 10, wished Apollos to 
return to Corinth, 1 Cor. xvi. 12, to settle the discord, 1 Cor.i. 10 
— 12, but he refusing-, Titus was sent with the first epistle to that 
church, 2 Cor. ii. 13, vii. 6 — 13. Paul remaining- at Ephesus three 
years, Acts xx. 31, Timothy must have returned to hiin, 1 Cor. 
xvi. il, where he left him, 1 Tim. i. 3, after the riot. Acts xx. 1, 
and went to Troas, expecting" to meet 'litus, 2 Cor. il. 12. Al- 
though he found an " open door'* there, ibid. 12, he went into 
Macedonia, ibid. 13, and whilst *' going over those parts," Acts 
xx. 2, Titus came to him, 2 Cor. vii. 6, and Timothy also; for he 
is joined in the second epistle to the Corinthians, c. i 1, with 
which Titus was sent back to Greece, 2 Cor. viii. 18, Then Paul, 
who had intended to have gone by Corinth into Macedonia, 2 Cor. 
i. 15, 23, went from Macedonia into Greece, and abode three 
months, Acts xx. 2, 3, and there wrote his letter to the Romans, 
Rom. XV. 25, 26. His design of going from Corinth to Judea, 2 
Cor. i. 16; Rom. xv. 31, by Ephesus, 1 Tim. iii. 14, iv. 13, being 
prevented by the Jews, Acts xx. 3, he went through Macedonia 
to Troas, ibid. 4, 5, sailed past Ephesus, called at Miletus, Acts 
XX. 16, 1*^, and came to Jerusalem, Acts xxi. 17. There being 
apprehended, he was sent to Csesarea, and remained tvvo years in 
prison, till Festus came into office. Acts xxiv. 27, who sent him 
by sea to Italy, Acts xxvii. 1. 'Ihe company touched at Crete, 
Acts xxvii. 8, but left it, ibid. 13, 21, were wrecked on Mileta, 
delayed three months, ibid, xxviii. 1, 11, and arrived at Rome, ver. 
16, where Paul remained a prisoner in his house for two years, 
ver. 30. Here he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, Colos->ians, 
and Philemon, in which Timothy is joined. He also sent, at this 
time, his letter to the Epliesians by Tychicus, Timothy having 
probably gone to Philippi, Phil. ii. 19, is not named; but was ex- 
pected, when he wrote to the Hebrews, Heb. xiii. 2, 3, a little be- 
fore his enlargement. It is, therefore, also clear, that Paul had 
not written his letter to Titus prior to his discharge at Rome. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 267 

Titus was appointed to discharge an important 
duty, when Paul sent him to Corinth, with his first 
epistle to that church, to rectify the disorders of a con- 
gregation, which possessed high advantages for lan- 
guage, science, and polished manners, and in which 
no officers appear to have been appointed. He was 
successful, and met Paul in Macedonia, to communi- 
cate the particulars of the affairs at Corinth. Being 
sent to them with the second epistle, he was followed 
by the apostle in person. This confidential service, 
compared with the circumstance, that no such apology 
was written in behalf of Titus, as of Timothy, aflfords 
some ground to presume, that Paul had previous ex- 
perience of the prudence and fidelity of Titus. 

The epistle to Titus expressly Hmits his service in 
Crete to the arrival of a substitute, who was to be sent, 
Titus iii. 12 ; it can never, therefore, let us suppose it 
to have been written when it may, prove a permanent 
connexion between this evangelist and the churches of 
Crete. 

As Titus was io ordain elders in every city, it may 
be inferred, there were none until constituted by him, 
this being one of the things left undone, ta %Et,Tiov1a, 
Titus i. 5. To suppose there were, is also to conflict 
with his practice of first planting, and afterwards or- 
daining. But when this work had been performed, or 
progressed in by him for some time, he was to 
meet Paul at Nicopolis. Those whom he had ordain- 
ed, and others, whom Artemas, or Tychicus, might 
afterwards commission as elders, continued, it may be 
fairly presumed, the succession of their ordinary 
office, as every where else. 

If it could be proved, that Titus died in Crete, it 
would no more establish that he was bishop of Crete, 
than his death at Corinth or at Dalmatia, where the 
Scriptural record leaves him, (2 Tim. iv. 10,) would 
have evinced that he was bishop of either of those 
places. 

The verb translated " appointed," (Titus i. 5,) is 



268 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

never once used in the Nev^ Testament in the sense 
of, to ordain to an office ; but was in this instance 
designed to refer Titus to the particular directions 
Paul had given him, when he left him in Crete, The 
apostle gave him no new commission ; he was to ex- 
ercise the office, which he already had, towards any 
people to whom he was sent. 

The apostles received an extraordinary commis- 
sion, which may be said to have virtually contained 
all the offices, which have been legitimately distin- 
guished by the church since the day of Pentecost ; and 
thus they were the predecessors of all other church 
officers. This high commission was necessarily limit- 
ed to them, (2 Cor. i. 15. Gal. i. 12. 1 Cor. ix. 1.) And 
there is little more propriety in bringing the apostolic 
office down to a level with that of presbyters or bish- 
ops, or of elevating the latter to the grade of the for- 
mer, than of supposing every governor an alderman, 
or every alderman a governor of a state, because com- 
missioned by such. 

Titus exercised an office evidently inferior to that 
of Paul, for he went and came, preached, planted 
churches, and ordained bishops according to the di- 
rections of the apostle. He attended upon his person, 
and did the work of an apostle, in subordination to 
him. So far as appears from the New Testament, 
his work was not fixed, or stationary, more than that 
of the apostle; but it as far exceeded that of a modern 
diocesan bishop, as this does that of a bishop in the 
days of the apostles. 

The practice of Paul was to carry the gospel into 
strange places, collect worshiping assemblies; and 
afterwards to return and ordain elders of those who 
had some experience. Pursuing the same reasonable 
course, he first collected churches in Crete, left them 
worshiping assemblies, and having given instructions 
to Titus to ordain such as were fit to be officers in the 
churches, he left him to accompHsh what the apostle 
would have done, had he tarried longer, and gone 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 269 

through those congregations a second time. Thus 
the churches in Crete were furnished, as other places 
were, with presbyters, or bishops, who could after- 
wards continue a regular administration of ordi- 
nances, by commissioning others of the same order in 
succession. 



y2 



SECTION XXVII 



THE FIXED STATE, AND ORDINARY OFFICERS OF THE PRIMITIVE 
CHURCHES. 

Under the spiritual dispensation of the gospel, the extraordinary officers were 
the apostles, to confer gifts and teach by means of the inspiration of sugges- 
tion ; the evangelists, to plant and water churches ; prophets, with occasional 
inspiration to explain the Scriptures. — The gifts are described, 1 Cor. xii. 
28; Rom. xii. 6 — 8; Ephes. iv. 11, 12. — Officers qualified to administer or- 
dinances, succeeded the extraordinary gifts, and churches, which were Chris- 
tian societies, were substituted for the synagogues. — But two orders or kinds 
were adopted— presbyter s., who were called also pastors and bishops, to teack, 
ordain, administer baptism and the euchanst, and to govern, and deacons to 
serve. — Among the presbyters, abench of which was at first in every church, 
and but one -presbytery in a society or city, there was one who presided, de- 
nominated Trpoio-lcec, angel, and by other names ; yet the ordination was not 
different from that of the rest. — The first change was by a gradual transition 
into pastoral or parochial episcopacy, afterwards into diocesan — This was 
established by the council of Nice, and at length produced papacy. 

To acquire just views of the government of the 
churches of the apostles' days, it is proper to abandon 
all ideas of later changes, and retain only that know- 
ledge, which Jewish believers had, prior to the descent 
of the Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost. 

The Mosaic dispensation terminated with the rend- 
ing of the vail of the temple, Christ having been a min- 
ister of the circumcision'' to fulfil the law, the sacrifices 
of which were to be superseded by his own. The 
seventy disciples could not have been officers of the 
kingdom then to come ; but, like those of the Baptist, 

a Rom. XV. 8; vide Matt. xv. 24, xx. 28; Matt. x. 5. viii. 4, 
xxviii. 19, 



THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &LC. 271 

than whom " the least in the kingdom of heaven" was 
greater, (Matt. xi. 11,) they were only Jews. The 
twelve received a commission, just before the ascen- 
sion, to be executed after the descent of the Spirit. 
Prior to such inspiration, they had neither the wisdom 
nor power requisite. It is no impeachment of the 
verity of the record to say, that the appointment of 
Matthias to the apostleship was equally unauthorised, 
as the desire of a temporal kingdom. Acts i. 6, both 
of which facts have been recorded. On the day of 
Pentecost, Peter saw, with a clearness to which he 
had been a stranger, the design of the death and of 
the exaltation of Christ, the nature of his kingdom, and 
the importance of the gift of the Spirit ; (chap. ii. 4, 23, 
4, 34, 5.) The apostles were themselves baptized by 
the Holy Ghost, and afterwards, by virtue of their 
commission, initiated believers with water, ver. 38, 
into a society in which all things were common, chap, 
iv. 32. Yetbelonging to the stock of Israel, they attend- 
ed at the temple and the synagogues, (chap. v. 42, vi. 
9,) but commemorated, on its own day, the resurrec- 
tion of Christ, in private assemblies. (Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. 
xi. 20.) Their increase of numbers soon required the 
designation of seven men, of spiritual gifts, and wis- 
dom, to serve tables. (Acts vi. 1 — 5.) Stephen exer- 
cised his gift of teaching, ver. 8, 10. Philip viii. 12. 
Ananias ix. 10, and other saints, when dispersed by 
persecution, also preached, (viii. 4,) and baptized, 
(ver. 16.) Saul, arrested, received the word of wis- 
dom from Christ ; his sight by the hands of Ananias, 
with initiation into the church by baptism, and an in- 
troduction to the apostles by Barnabas, a Levite of 
Cyprus. The restoration of Eneas and Tabitha, the 
visions of Cornelius and Peter, and the gift of tongues 
to the Gentiles at Csesarea, were also suited to the dis- 
pensationofthe Spirit. The enlargement ofPeter,Paul, 
and Silas, and of all the apostles from prisons ; the spi- 
ritual guidance of Philip, Peter, and especially of Paul in 
his travels ; the gifts furnished by the hands of the apos- 



272 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

ties to their fellow laborers, the evangelists, and the 
churches ; the impulses of the prophets ; the justness, 
consistency, and purity of the doctrines, v^hich were 
free from all mixture of error, and by immediate sug- 
gestion to the apostle, with their testimony, lives, and 
deaths; the judgments which fell on Ananias and Saphi- 
ra, and Elymas, and other things ; also, the power, 
influence, and opposition of the Pagan establishment ; 
the learning, eloquence, and pride of the philosophers ; 
the jealousy and hatred of the Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees, contrasted with the imbecility of the apostles, 
evince the fact and the necessity of a supernatural 
dispensation of the gospel.^ 

The prophets who came from Jerusalem, (Acts xi, 
27,) whose inspiration was occasional, and those men- 
tioned chap. xiii. ] , appear to have been inferior only 
to the apostles. (Eph. iii. 5.) By some of these the 
Holy Spirit directed Barnabas and Saul to be separat- 
ed, not ordained, for they were inspired teachers, to 
preach the gospel in distant places ; the former being 
a suitable companion for the apostle, in the island of 
his nativity. They went as Jews to the synagogues 
and families of their own nation, but in the power of 
the Spirit ; whilst a different religion might have ex- 
posed them to persecution, and to the elfects of that 
discrimination which Gallio humanely refused to re- 
cognize. 

By the same Spirit the apostles were able to vindi- 
cate their own authority, and competent to vouch for 
those whom they took to their aid, in promulgating 
the gospel, and establishing societies. (2 Cor. viii. 23.) 
In the accomphshment of this work, ordination was 
no more required, than in the preaching of John and 
his disciples, or of the seventy sent forth by Christ; 
or in the case of him who cast out devils with the 



b Vide Acts i. 8, il. 33, viil. 15, 29, x. 19, 44, xi. 12, 15, xiii. 
2, XV. 8, xvi. 6, XX. 28; 1 Thess. i. 5; Gal. iii. 3—5^ 2 Cor. iii. 
6—9; Heb.ii. 4. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 273 

master's approbation ; or of Apollos, both before and 
after he became a Christian ; no law of the former 
dispensation, nor custom in Israel, being against their 
preaching. A renunciation of their ancient customs 
might have offended the Jews to whom they came, 
and forfeited the national right of toleration. 

When attending on the seventh-day worship, they 
prophesied and taught in the synagogues ; on the 
Lord's day, they cultivated spiritual knowledge, com- 
memorated his resurrection, and by degrees over- 
coming their Jewish prejudices, they prepared for 
that separation, which the destruction of Jerusalem 
was soon to consummate. 

As ordination w^as neither required nor expedient 
in planting the churches, so it is not affirmed of an 
apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, or a teacher, but all 
referred to gifts ; unless Timothy be an exception ; 
and in making him such we have hesitated ; for why 
and when the hands of the presbytery were laid on 
him; and whether Paul joined, the relations be- 
ing in different epistles, and without reference to each 
other, do not discover. He may have been chosen 
and ordained a presbyter, and afterwards circumcissd 
and gifted by Paul as a helping evangelist. Apollos 
preached as a Jew without ordination at Alexandria 
and Ephesus ; and as a Christian at Corinth, before he 
had seen either an apostle, an evangelist, or a pres- 
byter. The laying of hands on Paul and Barnabas, 
was after the apostleship of the former ; not like the 
imposition by Peter and John, (Acts viii. 17,) for the 
conferring spiritual gifts as apostles, not after the man* 
ner of Paul, who imposed his hands on Timothy as an 
apostle. The attempts to locate Timothy and Titus, 
have been shown destitute of a support ; so long as 
the residence of an apostle, or evangelist, at any 
place, became expedient, his authority was still gene- 
ral and extraordinary. As no preacher of the gospel 
can be shown to have been ordained by imposition of 
hands, except as a presbyter, and unto a particular 



274 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

church, the contrary we have no right to assume 
against fact, utility, and Jewish examples. The three 
celebrated texts must now be tested. 

Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians before 
his second visit ; that church being left, as all others 
were-, in the first instance, without officers. They 
partook of the supper as other churches on every 
Lord's day, after the manner of a passover. That 
they had received spiritual gifts, appears; (chap.xii.8.) 
They had seen an apostle in Paul, a prophet in Silva- 
nus, a number of evangelists, and witnessed various 
gifts, as heahng, and tongues : but however desirable 
the gifts, the apostle declared to them " a more excel- 
lent way ;" for sanctifying influences change the soul, 
and prepare for heaven. 

The terms evangelist, presbyter, pastor, bishop, and 
deacon, in their official sense, never occurred in this 
epistle. With respect to the terms, helps, avli^vj-^si^, <^ 
and gover?iments, xvj3spv7j(i£ii, they arQ not elsewhere 
found in the New Testament. Being abstract, and 
placed among extraordinary " gifts," expressly so de- 
nominated in verse 31, they could have signified no- 
thing else to a people to whom had been dispensed 
only spiritual things.'^ Nor dues evidence exist, that 
any officer of a Christian church was ever called by 
either of those names. That interpretation which 
makes helps, deacons, and governments, lay-elders, is 
not only conjectural and gratuitous, but preposterous ; 
for it places the order of deacons before that of pres- 
byters. 

Those " strangers" from Rome at the feast of Pen- 
tecost, who received the Holy Spirit, it may be pre- 
sumed, carried home the gospel to the metropohs; 
and the opposition they experienced from their bre- 



c 1 Cor. xli. 28. — U^a^ov ciTrogloxousy Stvlipov :T/)a<j)«7*f, rptlov 
Mcta-KAKovc, i-ritlai, Sweijuns, eila,\ ^etpKr/malct Ict/uetiaVy av7/X»4"f» 
ytVH yxooa-a-cDV. 

d Ta Trptty/uAja,' otnivo/uiiv iryiv/uaJtKst. Chrysostom in loC 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 275 

thren, procured the exile of all the Jews from Ttalj^ * 
When, by the death of Claudius, their banishment 
ceased, Paul addressed them from Corinth. Urbanus, 
like Titus, was di fellow-laborer, cwspyo?. 

But of presbyters or deacons at Rome, or of the 
visit of any one who might ordain them, there is not 
a word at the period of the epistle. But they appear 
not only to have partaken of the extraordinary gifts, 
xapbafiala, which, during their banishment, they had 
witnessed in the churches planted by the apostles, but 
to have been in danger of vanity in the exercise of 
them, (Rom. xii. 3.) On which account, they w^ere 
advised to consider themselves as members of the 
same body, the church ; as necessary to each other ; 
and possessing gifts for the common good. These 
are distinguished into two kinds, prophecy and ministry, 
rtpo^vpuav and biaxovvav.^ Their attendance on the Sab- 
baths in the synagogues ; and on the I^ord's days, in 
at least four private houses, is unquestionable. In the 
synagogues, as Jews, they might all prophesy, yield- 
ing precedence to priests and Levites, and exercise 
their spiritual gift, ftpo^rjleta, by rightly expounding 
some portion of the Old Testament to the synagogue 
worshipers. The caution given by the apostle, (Rom. 
xii. 6,) was in this to go nothing beyond their measure, 
or contrary to the scheme of the gospel. When assem- 
bled as Christians alone, they had to accomphsh a 
service, Biaxoviav, in the discharge of which, any of them, 
for they had no officers, might exercise his %apic>fxa. 
As in the synagogues, prophesy, Ttpo^rp^ia, a sudden 
suggestion of truth to the mind by the Spirit, must 
have been that gift, which was most suited to awaken 



e Sueton. Claud, c.25. 

f Rom. xii. 6 — 8. E;:^oi'7«? Si ^ufna-fAciltL — uli 9rpc<p-/)iistv, kaIa 

THV AVdiXOytdLV T»? '^TKrlifDr itli J'lAK.OVlAV, iV Tit SldjiiVltf itli SlSitT- 

xav, iY Til SiJ'si^KsLXta,' ifli o TTcLfdHCAKaiiV iV TH TTdifctKKha-ii- /jMo.S'i- 
cTot/f, tl etTTKOTull' TrpotrlsifAivos iV a-TrovSf iXiCt-V, iV iXetpcTnTi. In 

1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, X'^piTy.iLJu. are distinguished from J'lAicoyian, as gifts 
from their application. 



276 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

and instruct the Jews ; so the ministry ^ Siaxovia, was 
in its various branches more properly their Christian 
duty, when convened in their own evangehcal wor- 
ship. In the Scaxoyta, in ver. 7, 8, five species of gifts 
were exhibited, not in the abstract, but by five partici- 
ples. We have neither any warrant from the gram- 
mar of the language, to refer a part of the specifica- 
tion to prophecy ;^ nor from the circumstances of the 
case, to suppose that the writer intended an anticipa- 
tion of the two ordinary offices, which they were af- 
terwards to receive, in common with all the fixed 
churches, for no such description could be necessary 
to those who were acquainted with the government of 
the synagogues. The same diversity of gifts existed 
at Corinth, whence he was writing ; except that 
wherever there w^as an apostle, there w^as also the 
word of wisdom, and power of conferring. There all 
might, for they had no officers, prophesy, and employ 
their extraordinarv gifts, if without confusion. (1 Cor. 
xiv. 3, 5, 31, 39.) " 

Theophylact understood TCpocalafXEvos in the sense of 
7tp(w7a7tj, a succotirer, (Rom. xvi. 2,) and explains it by 
^ot^^cov. Thus the sense would be, let him that gives 
his substance, /xslaSiSovt, do it with simplicity of heart, or 
liberality, and hetkat succours, Ttpoialaixsvo^, the distressed, 
do it with diligence. This judgment being by one 
whose native language was the Greek, deserves high 
regard ; but other Greek writers, for the most part, 
understood hj Ttpoiilaf^svo?, either presiding, as the pri- 
mus presbyter, or actiiig as patrons to strangers ; but in 

g n^o<:|)»7s/«is distinguished from J'lJ'a.x^i) in 1 Cor. xiv. 6, com- 
pared with the miraculous gift of faith, 1 Cor. xiii. 2, and was to 
be abolished as well as the gift of tongues, ibid. ver. 8. Also, 
7rpo<^n'liii are enumerated in Ephesians, iv. 11, before evangelists, 
then follow SiScio-kakoi. To arrange, therefore, StSxa-icm unde? 
7rpo(^>iliict, in Rom. xii. 6, 7, is also to confound Scriptural distinc- 
tions. But J'lctK.ovtct is of extent sufficient to include tlie five spe- 
cies of ministry which follow it? vide 1 Cor. xii. 5; Rom. xi. 13; 
Col. iv. 17; Acts vi. 1—4? 1 Cor. iii. 5. And to it does the speci- 
fication naturally belong. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 27T 

the sense of an inferior presbyter, we have found no 
example in any commentator prior to the Reforma- 
tion. 

When the epistle to the Ephesians was written, they 
had presbyters, or bishops, and probably deacons. 
To them, therefore, he could write, both of the extra- 
ordinary gifts, and the fixed officers. 

Having exhorted the Ephesian Christians to peace, 
and spoken of the church as one body, (chap. iv. 3, 4,) 
and of each member as a partaker of the grace par- 
ticularly given to him, (ver. 7,) he alleges, that Christ 
had ascended to heaven, that" he might confer all the 
gifts that should be necessary to the promulgation of 
the gospel, and the planting of the churches, (ver. 8, 
10.) He gave, gifts, not ordinations, some to be apostles, 
some to be prophets, and some to be pastors and teachers, 
(ver. 11.^ ) All of these were conferred for the pre- 
paring of the saints unto the ministry, unto the building 
of the church; (ver. 12.) The extraordinaiy gifts 
necessary to planting the church are here first ex- 
pressed, and the design of them was, Ttpo? ifov xalaplcfffxov, 
to prepare sai?its, not merely for preaching, but for the 
duties of the fixed state, ec? spyov SiaxovLa?^ an expression 
which well includes both of the ordinary offices; and 
lest his meaning, with regard to the design of these 
preparatory gifts, should be mistaken, he adds, ft? 
ovxoSofi'/jv ifov crw^ia7oj for Xptj7ov^ and to cxpress that 
the settled state of the church, when gifts might cease, 



h Ephes. iv. 11, 12. K*; avlo? eS'ceiii, rov? fxiv, etTTocroxcv?, 
TOViS'f, Trpo^nlac, rcvc Si, eunyyiXicrlsic, Tov^St, voifXiVA? kui StJ'ota-- 
K'±Kovg, Trpo; rov it u.1 x pi i <r f^ ov Tm nyim, us epyov JiXKovuf-c ets oikoSo- 
fAifV <TQV a-ce/UitlQC tow Xpiclou. 

i Ver. 12 has been deemed exegitical of SiSa.?Koxovc only, and 
expressive merely of the preparation of holy men for the g-ospel 
ministry. But this is to mistake the usual discrimination of these 
distinct gifts, vide Acts xiii. 1; 1 Cor xii. 28, and to destrov the 
argument of the apostle, who, in ver. 12, shows the design of the 
gifts of the Spirit to have been to plant a church, of which he' 
wishes the Ephesians to be found peaceful members. 

z 



278 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

had not then arrived, he subjoins, (ver. 13,) y,£xp('xalav' 

Apostles were inspired in all things necessary, hav- 
ing the v^ord of wisdom. Prophets had also an extra- 
ordinary gift, being guided to interpret the word of 
God truly ; this is the word of knowledge. Evangehsts 
were equally extraordinary teachers, having faith in 
what they heard, and aided the apostles in preaching 
and planting churches. The labors of these were tem- 
porary and general; their inspiration was not sug- 
gestion, but superintendence. 

The term '' pastors, ^^ which is not used in the letters 
to the Corinthians and Romans, is correlative, and sup- 
poses a flock ; but not necessarily an ofhcial connex- 
ion, nor a flock to every shepherd, for in Acts xx. 28, 
Paul had charged the presbyters of the Ephesian 
church, when they met him at Miletus, to take heed — 
to the Jiock in which the Holy Spirit placed them bishops, 
to feed the church, jioiiiaivdv tr,v sxx%yi6io.v. This charge to 
the elders of Ephesus plainly identifies the duties im- 
plied in the words pastor and bishop, although the first 
is not expressed. In like manner, he avoids in this 
epistle, as if with design, the names presbyter and 
bishop, although he certainly knew this class of of- 
ficers existed in that church. 

Before the ordination of fixed officers, there must 
have been numbers who acted as pastors, who, like the 
apostles and the rest, were not the ordinary officers 
with whom particular churches were afterwards fur- 
nished, but to prepare the way for them,7tpoj xalaplisjjLov. 
The appointment of church officers, £tj spyov Staxovtaj, 
furnished no argument for the truth of the cause, to 
be compared with the extraordinary work of the Holy 
Spirit in the promulgation and planting of the gospel 
by the irresistible gifts of Chiist. 

The history of facts evinces, that the extraordinary 
state of the church and the -work of the Spirit, for 

k Vide Hoogeveen, p. 97. 



OP CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 279 

whom the apostles waited at Jerusalem, and by whom 
they were endued with power from on high, according 
to promise, (Luke xxiv. 49,) were intended to gather 
converts and plant churches; during which dispensa- 
tion of the Spirit, the apostles needed no other au- 
thority or voucher either for themselves or their as- 
sistants.^ But it was important that the churches 
should be provided with officers publicly designated, 
and with distinguishing ordinances, for their future 
government and continuation, when the extraordinary 
gifts should cease. They were, accordingly, for this 
cause, every where in due time, furnished with of- 
ficers from whom, in succession, the church will con- 
tinue till the end of the world. This fixed state of the 
churches is that which demands our next, chief, and 
final attention. 

Every one discerns that baptism and the supper 
were in names, modes, administrations, and subjects, 
conformed to ancient rites. The gradual substitution 
of the Christian synagogue, (Jam. ii. 2,) for the Jew- 
ish, among those who still retained attachments for 
the old order of things, as well as for meats and days, 
produced a similarity of worship and officers. 

But modern synagogues greatly differ from those of 
the first century."^ In the synagogues, priests and 

1 The opinion of the modern Greek church, that Paul was or- 
dained by Ananias, is contrary to the instructions g-iven unto, and 
professed by him. Saul's sight was to be restored, and he was 
to be received by baptism. The idea of Seldt n, that he was or- 
dained as a scribe in the synagog-ue, and that he bore the same 
rank when a Christian, is possible, so far as regarded tlie Jews, 
but not necessary. The separation of Saul with Barnabas, who 
had brought him from his proper work, when the Spirit, who 
seems to have guided all his apostolic movements, sent him back 
to his duty, was too late for an ordination, had any been proper. 
Paul, who best knew, rested his commission as an apostle on the 
words of Christ; and the Spirit given by his hands was the distin- 
guishing proof of his apostleship. Gal. i. 12; 2 Cor. xii. 12; Acts 
xix. 6, viii. 15. 

m Vitringa (" De Synagoga") has enumerated some striking 
differences in lib. ii. c. 4. He has also shown from the Jerusalem 



280 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMEJfT 

levites had precedence, but as the worship was mo 
ral, not ceremonial, they might serve without the 
dress necessary in the temple, and no Israehte was 
excluded from any of the offices, of what tribe soever, 
or from reading in the synagogue, without bearing 
an office. Thus it was the custom, skoBos, both of 
Christ and Paul to officiate in the synagogue ; (Luke 
iv. 16, Acts xvii. 1 — 7;) and no where in the New 
Testament are presbyters called priests, or deacons 
levites ; on the contrary, Christ alone is the priest, 
and all the officers of the Christian church are to him 
deacons, that is, ministers or servants. 

No denomination of Christians is now perfectly 
conformed in officers, government, and worship,, to 
the churches which were planted by the apostles and 
evangelists, nor is it important that they should l>e. 

That presbyters and deacons, the former to over- 
see and teach, the latter to aid them in the eucharist 
and the temporal concerns of the society, are useful in 
every church, are matters of fact. That among the 
presbyters, ajirst among equals, primus inter pares, an 
angel, president, or bishop existed, of the. same ordi- 
nation and order, whose power advanced afterwards 
from a single church to cities, provinces, kingdoms, 
and the Christian world, has been shown in detail. 

Caution must be exercised, not to confound names 
of officers with the appellative senses of words. Peter 
and John denominate themselves Ttp^ jj3i;7spoi, elders, in 
allusion to their age ; for apostles are distinguished 
from elders, (Acts xv. 6.) Private men were a7io{lo%oi, 
messengers, of a particular church, (2 Cor. iii. 23,) not 
apostles of Christ, (Gal. i. 12, ii. 8.) The apostles were 



Talmud, the Gemara, and other Jewish writing's, that in the an- 
cient synag-ogues the y^ and CD'DJiD were of the same order, and 
were called OMpr, elders, whilst the D^Jin were vTrnpilati, dea- 
cons. In exact correspondence we find the ordinary officrs, 
orig'inally fixed in the respective churches, to have been the tt^oo- - 
lo)?, and other oTrKnt^Trci, p»r Trfmrjiuli^oi, all of the same order; and 
the SiAKovot, subordinate. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 281 

Staxovot, (1 Cor. iii. 5,) servants of 'Christ, not the dea- 
cons of particular societies. The first fixed oflicers 
of the churches who were generally seniors in age or 
grace, were designated by the name elders^ 7tps?j3aj7fpot, 
that is, CD'jpT,^, but were not always old men. By 
virtue of their commission, they w^ere overseers, 
iTti^xoTioi, bishops, in particular churches.°f They were 
appointed to feed and rule the flock, but are named in 
no instance as ordained officers, Ttoifisvsi, pastors.^ The 
presbyter who presided in the worship and govern- 
ment of each church, was the rcposalco?, president, or 
ruling presbyter.^. But the president was at the same 
time one of the elders, or bishops of the same church, 
by virtue of the same ordination, and had no other, 
till he became the bishop of the Cyprimnc age. 

If there were two kinds of elders, there were also 
two kinds of bishops; because elders and bishops 
were the same officers.'" When the duties were va- 
rious, and the elders numerous, prudence must have 
assigned to presbyters respectively different employ- 
ments. A number of them in the same church, was, 
in the early days important, not only because of per- 
secution, but for the arduous w^ork of instructing the 
Gentiles, both in public and private. Had one presby- 
ter only been fixed in each, their continuance by suc- 
cession would have been obviously too precarious. 

n Acts xlv. 23, XX. 17; Titus i. 5; James v. 14; 1 Tipi. iv. 4; 

1 Peter v. 1. 

o Acts XX. 28; Titus i. 5^7; James v. 14; Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim. 
iii. 2; IPet. v. 2. 

P Acts XX. 28, ivia-icoTrov? Troi/uttivitv, 1 Pet. v. 2, Trot/uetvAle — 
i7rt;>co7ro'j'/li; for Q"'DJiD of the synag-og-ue, is from djis, pascere or 
guhernare, and is equivalent to iTricacTroi. The Hebrew idicm is by 
both apostles here carried into the Greek. 

q 1 Tim. V. 17, the 7rgoi{]a)i of the Ti-picCunpiov answered unto 
the m of the o-'onfl. He was probably the angel in each of the 
apocalyptic churches. 

r That elder and bishop, 7rps?8v1ij>os and sTricnovocy designated 
the same officer, may be seen by comparing" Acts xx, 17, with 
ver. 28; also Titus i. 5, with ver. 7; also 1 Peter v. 1, with ver. 2, 
in the Greek ; the translation conceals it. 

2z 



282 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

The duties of ciders and deacons were not the 
same. Had there existed mute elders in the apostolic 
churches, deacons would have been unnecessary. El- 
ders must "feed the church," (Acts xx. 28,) and 
should he " apt to teach ;" but this was not expected of 
deacons.^ 

That there were but two orders of officers in the 
churches, may be shown by the addresses and letters 
to them. Thus Paul and Timothy, writing to the 
Philippians, address " all the saints in Christ Jesus, 
who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." 
(Phil. i. 1.) If elders inferior to bishops, had existed 
in that favorite church, it is unaccountable, that they 
should have been omitted, and the deacons named. 
The first letter to Timothy was framed evidently with 
such views. That evangelist received no directions 
about the ordination of ruling elders, his business was 
to select suitable persons, and to ordain them as bish- 
ops ; and others, of different qualifications, as deacons. 
The same two orders, elders to preside and to preach 
the gospel, and deacons to help them in other duties, 
were to be ordained by Titus, but not two sorts of 
elders. 

Peter, (1 Epist. v. 1 — 5,) addressing the presbyters 
of the dispersion, makes no distinction between them, 
but supposes them clothed with the same office and 
powers ; and equally charges all and every one of 
them: "Feed the flock," Ttot^amTs — rcotfiviov, act as pas- 
tars to the flock " of God, which is among you, taking 
the oversight," sTtc^axoHoovles, exercising the office of bishops, 
*' not by constraint, but willingly." Without excep- 
tion, the elders, Ttpsa^vlspoL, were all bound to feed and 



s Justin Martyr, Apol. 1, p. 127. — Aiakcvgi StSctodi iKct{}» tm 
'frctpovlcov juirahit^iiv cltto rev iu^cipt;l>idtvlcg uplou, &,C. This was 
within forty years of the apostle John. So in the Apostolical Con- 
stitutions, which are later, (c 13, p. 405,) it is said, "O/e J'taKcvct 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 283 

govern the flock, " Ttoifiavala — rtot^i'tov," as bishops, " iTtca- 

xoTiovvla^y 

Presbyters must have differed in their gifts, graces, 
and talents ; some were best qualified for governing, 
others for exhorting and comforting, others for teach- 
ing the church ; that each should exercise his particu- 
lar powers, was the dictate of prudence. 

But this diversity by no means affected the identity 
of the order, the mode of ordination, the nature of the 
office, or the obligation of its duties. 

No where do we find, in the history of the Acts of 
the Apostles, any but the one order of presbyters. 
Paul and Barnabas ordained elders in every church, 
7tp£(yj3v7fpouj xala sxx%7i6iav, (Acts xiv. 23,) without any 
distinction of kinds. Thei'e appears to have been but 
one class of them at Ephesus. Paul sent fcr the elders 

of the church, ^lelexa^saalo tovi TipsG^vlspovg ifv;? sxx'Ki^Giai. 

(Acts XX. 17.) They came to Miletus ; if any of them 
had been ruling elders, in the modern sense of those 
terms, it is not discernible wdth what propriety he 
could have charged them, without discrimination, to 
take heed to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit had 
made them bishops, sTUixorCfyv^, and noiixaivtw, to act as 
shepherds to the church. 

The question, so far as regards ruli?ig elders, freed 
from embarrassment, rests upon a single passage of 
Scripture. " Let the elders who rule well, be counted 
worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in 
word and doctrine."^ These words express a di- 
versity in the exercises of the presbyterial office, but 
not in the office itself If it can be shown that there 
existed two kinds of officers, called by the common 
name, presbyters, this Scripture may be then under- 
stood to relate to them. But the text alone will never 
establish such distinction, because it can be literally 
understood of various duties of the same order. Pres- 



* 1 Tim. V. 17. O; KAKCDC Trpoic-lalig TrpiT^vlipoi J'lTrxng Ti/uni 



284 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT 

byters advanced in life, grave in deportment, and of 
distinguished prudence, w^ere fitted to preside ; others, 
if of more ready utterance, and of competent know- 
ledge, w^ere best quahfied to teach. The passage 
shoves that some presided, that others labored in word, 
and that the honor, or rather reward, was to be 
proportioned to their efforts, not according to grades, 
and orders never mentioned in the Scriptures. Pres- 
byter, as an officer of a church, means in every other 
passage in the New Testament, a bishop, in the ancient 
sense of the term, and there is no reason to infer from 
this text, a new sort, never heard of till the Reforma- 
tion. If there be any priority, it is a precedence over 
the presbyters themselves ; for the7tpofcr7cojwas he who 
presided amongst the Ephori, among whom was parity ; 
or who governed a kingdom, and accordingly Chrysos- 
tom thought him both, TCotfiTjv and 6t6aoxa7ioj, a pastor and 
teacher. So far is the ^Nordruling, TtposoliolE^, from signify- 
ing a subordinate class of presbyters, that Justin Mar- 
tyr, within half a century of John,"" makes use of that 
identical word repeatedly, to mark out that presbyter, 
who gave thanks and dispensed the elements at the sa- 
cramental supper to the deacons, to be carried to the 
communicants. The presbyters, who presided, rcpos^- 
7o7f?, on the most solemn occasions, blessing the ele- 
ments, deserved double reward ; but especially those, 
fxauila 60, who performed the chief labor in preaching. 
" All the saints salute you /xa-KtiJa 5s ot, bid chiejly they 
that are of Cesar's household." (Phil. iv. 22.) Who 
would imagine that the saints of Cassar's household, 
were of a different kind from others ? Their labors 
might be different, but they were equally saints ; 
ijLofKi^ta only expresses that their salutations were either 
more earnest, or presented to peculiar notice. 

If a single proof of the existence of a distinct order 

u Apol. i. p. 127. Ev^Aptalna-cDilo? Si rov ?r^ci(rlit]o(;, &C. 
Page 131. — O 7rfioi;loos Sta xoyov <Thv vov^-igiAt — ciplos 7/cs<ftptlAi kai 

OtVQS KUt vSunp. 



OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 285 

of ruling elders can be shown from the Scriptures, it 
is sufficient. But they show, that two orders only 
were constituted by the apostles, presbyters or bishops, 
and deacons. 

The form of government at present used in the 
Presbyterian church has retained the alternative ; the 
churches have their election of two, or of three or- 
ders, and thus give to neither side just ground of of- 
fence. In it we cheerfully acquiesce. These out- 
lines of the reasons upon which three orders have 
been refused, in, we believe, a majority of our church- 
es, have been reluctantly given ; but the confident 
style of several recent pubhcations, of opposite senti- 
ments, has rendered the defence of our own opinion, 
and that of our fathers, a duty. The question is ex- 
tremely simple. Did such a distinct intermediate 
order exist in the apostolic churches? Until it be 
shown, either by fact or Scripture, we may safely 
adopt the negative, both as to the lay presbyter, and 
the diocesan bishop. But we have found nothing for 
either, except hearsays, opinions, and some forged 
writings. 

The presbyter in each society, with a president at 
its head, passed into the pastoral form, or parochial 
episcopacy, by degrees scarcely perceptible. The 
ulterior transition into diocesan episcopacy, followed, 
as the necessary result of the restriction of each city 
to one set of church officers ; and so long as promo- 
tion was exposure to persecution, power accumulated 
without jealousy. 

Afterwards when Constantino substituted the Chris- 
tian for the Pagan hierarchy, of which he was, by 
virtue of his office, the pontifex maximus, the church 
did not so much acquiesce in the change, as exult at 
the establishment of Christianity. The western por- 
tion advanced by slow, but certain, steps unto papal 
domination. It was not till the Reformation, that the 
ground-work was laid of those various forms of 
church government, which at present appear among 



286 THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &C. 

protestants. They were deemed then to be, as they 
really are, of minor importance ; and, in fact, received 
their characteristic features, less from the diversity 
of the hypotheses of the reformers in different coun- 
tries, than from the poUticai circumstances of the res- 
pective nations. They awaken research, without 
dividing the faithful ; and what right views can ob- 
scure, perfection will eventually obliterate. 



"LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS." 



Thb following numbers were first published in the "Phlladel- 
phian," of the year 1828, as answers to some remarks under the 
same title, which appeared in the " Church Register.*' 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
Number I. 



This title is taken from the Church Register. It, at 
the same time, points to the cause, and expresses the 
subject of our inquiries. The alternative being ten- 
dered, "Prayer may be called the making known of 
our wants to a superior being, and our desire to be re- 
lieved from them; or, it is "the offering the heart to 
God;" we accept the latter, because neither angels 
nor glorified saints can help us, or become mediators. 
To the objection, that " the Omniscient knows cmr wants 
long before they existed," the anonymous writer an- 
swers in terms suited to his own creed. We prefer to 
say the author of all good governs with equal particu- 
larity in the kingdoms of providence and grace : in 
both he adopts means, among which are often the du- 
ties assigned to moral agents. Their liberty, being 
essential to their responsibility, is secure ; whilst their 
voluntary actions are constituents of the general 
scheme of events. If the prayer of faith be thus 
a mean to ensure a promised blessing, the grace is 
certain, and consequently the duty ; and the purpose, 
the fore-knowledge, and the event are equally sure, 
whilst the duty of praying is not the less incumbent ; 
and as in every other case, absolute contingency is 
wholly excluded. 

When he says that "private prayer, is that pouring 
out of the heart, which holds the soul in rapt commu- 
nion with spiritual things ;" and afterwards that "this 
(order) is best effected in public prayer by the use 

2A 



290 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

and adoption of one general form ; we feel no other 
concern, than that the writer would carry his private 
devotion to the public sanctuary. But when we ob- 
served, by the second number, that the aim of the wri- 
ter was to show that, "the Jews used precomposed and 
set forms of prayer in their public religious worship ;" 
and that such was "the practice of our blessed Re- 
deemer, and after him, of his disciples;" the two num- 
bers were seen to be perfectly in character for their 
vehicle, and illy suited to a hemisphere, where liturgies 
are not rejected by dissenters, but by the mass of the 
people. 

Prayer being the offering up of the desires to God, 
it is accomplished with or without words ; in words 
which are our own, or another's ; or printed or written. 
There ought, therefore, to be "no degradation, no 
want of piety, no proof of alienship," imputed to any 
individual, or denomination, for using "prayers pre- 
composed," nor have we heard of any such thing ; 
but if the ancient Jews and the first Christians used a 
public liturgy, it would seem that we, who have none, 
must be the aliens. We have therefore a conceded 
excuse for parrying this charge by examining its sup- 
ports. 

The first is taken from Exodus xv. the song of Mo- 
ses and the children of Israel by the Red Sea; "the 
words and tune of which were arranged and known 
before all the people joined in it ; and therefore it is a 
set form." This would have been in point, had the 
question been of singing Psalms. It would also have 
been relevant, if the lawfulness of set forms in prayer 
had been denied. But in proof of the use of "pre- 
composed and set forms of prayer in pubHc worship" 
of the Jews, its bearing is not easily discerned. 

Also that the words were previously "known by 
them all" we are unable to infer from the circum- 
stances. Printing had not been invented — the song 
consists of nineteen verses, and the thousands of Israel 



LITURGICAL COXSIDEKATIONS. 291 

were numerous. We read that "Miriam answered 
them;" and her answer, so far as given, was the first 
sentence which Moses sang. It is possible, therefore, 
and seems to us probable, that those who knew the in- 
spired words, sang by sentences, and others responded. 
The argument from a particular and extraordinary 
occasion to a universal practice is inconclusive; as 
much so as if it should be asserted, that Presbyterians 
follow in their worship a liturgy, because they sing the 
psalms of David. 

The second proof is brought from Deuteronomy, 
xxi. 7-8. The answer to be taken of the elders of a 
city next unto the place of a homicide, where the 
murderer is not found. "Our hands have not shed 
this blood, neither did our eyes see ii. Be merciful, O 
Lord, unto thy people of Israel, whom thou hast re- 
deemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of 
Israel's charge." "This is a prayer,"—" given as a 
form," — "a precomposed prayer." So is every oath, 
"so help me God." This was an oath of purgation, 
which was appointed by law to be taken by the elders 
of a city, under such circumstances, to clear them- 
selves of the murder; But it was "precomposed by 
God" himself. Yes, the theocracy was his, and he 
created the law. But it constituted no part of a liturgy, 
and can prove none. And if it were, it would only 
justify a prayer book of divine inspiration, but such 
never had existence. 

The next argument is drawn from the benediction, 
Num. vi. 24, 25, 26, given to Aaron and the priests 
to be officially "put — upon the children of Israel." 
"That it is a form cannot be questioned." It is a form 
of a benediction, and was in force under the Jewish 
dispensation. It is neither obligatory now, nor is it 
evidence of the existence of a Jewish liturgy, but af- 
fords a presumption of the contrary. 

"The song of Deborah and Barak, Judges v. affords 
another evidence in favour of the use of set forms on 



292 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS* 



public occasions, in the earliest period of the Jewish 
church." But this was on a special occasion, and 
proves not a general practice ; and if it did, it extends 
to psalms, not to a liturgy. But the book of psalms, 
made long afterwards with few exceptions, evinces 
that such a composition had not been previously given 
them. Also a song given by inspiration to the Jews will 
not justify a palming an uninspired prayer hook upon the 
church of Christ. In singing it is scarcely possible, 
that the duty should be accomplished without the use 
of precomposed forms ; but for prayer no such neces- 
sity existed; thus when "Ezra blessed the Lord, the 
great God ; all the people answered amen, amen, with 
lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads, 
and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the 
ground." If their hands were up, and their heads 
bowed, and their faces were to the ground, they must 
have uttered amen, amen, without prayer books. 

Still further, this writer thinks set forms of prayer 
receive a " testimony" from David's appointing " the 
Levites to stand every morning to thank and praise 
the Lord, and likewise at even." This language leads 
the reader only to the idea of singing praises. But 
had it expressed, with equal clearness, prayer, there is 
nothing upon which to found an opinion, that any 
prayers were written. We have never found a " tes- 
timony" of any other prayers offered at the temple, 
except on an extraordinary occasion, than those which 
each man offered alone. We have authority enough, 
that the law was read, and that the levites " gave the 
sense and caused them to understand the reading" 
without recurring to Josephus. He was a Pharisee, 
and not more credible than the traditions collected 
in the Talmud, against which we have the caution of 
Christ himself. If this writer will look into the He- 
brew prayers now used in the synagogues, he will 
find prayers for the dead, and other proofs in abun- 
dance that they are of modern date. 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 293 

There follows a sentence, in language inferential, 
but in sentiment unjustly caustic. "All which proves 
that they, although in their reHgious polity guided by 
God himself, left neither the manner, the subject, nor 
the words of their public service to the wild and varied 
imaginations of their priests, — though separated by 
divine appointment for God's worship ; neither to the 
practice or observance of private judgment, and indi- 
vidual opinion." They, the Jews, left neither, &c.? Did 
they prescribe to the priests? Where is the proof? If 
by public service be meant the duties of the priests' of- 
fice, these were not prescribed by the people, but in 
the ceremonial law, which neither contains, nor re- 
quires the reading of, public prayers. If " iAeiV" im- 
ply other priests, we answer there is no priest under 
the gospel, but Christ himself. If "wild and varied 
imaginations" be a stroke aimed at extempore public 
prayers, it is premature, for it has not been yet shown 
that God has required set forms. The concessions 
that prayer is "the offering the heart to God," and that 
it may be without written expressions when in private, 
warrant the conclusion that forms are presented to 
please men, not God. "Wild and varied imagina- 
tions," appears to be a designed imputation upon us, 
who use no forms, and were its source not an indivi- 
dual, would justify recrimination. We have not for- 
gotten the objections which our forefathers made to the 
prayer book, and feel prepared to vindicate at all times 
their justice. If "private judgment and individual 
opinion" must be taken away from our prayers, how 
are they "the offering the heart to God?" And if this 
be absent, words are not prayers. But we are respon- 
sible to God only, and fallible man has no right to re- 
strain the prayers of his fellow men. 

What this writer shall yet effect, remains to be seen, 

but in the Old Testament he has not found a solitary 

proof, that in the ordinary worship of the ancient Jews, 

they offered joint prayers. They had their hours of 

2a2 



294 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

prayer, and made many and long prayers, differing in 
"the manner, subjects and words," for whilst one drew 
near and thanked God, that he was not as a pubhcan 
then in his view, the publican stood at a distance, and 
could only say. Lord be merciful to me a sinner. But 
neither the pharisee, nor pubhcan brought a WTitten 
form, or opened a book; nor do we find a priest, either 
in parable or fact, at any time to have interfered with 
the prayers of the people. 



Number II. 



Prayer is a personal duty, which one man cannot 
discharge for another. Those who claim superior 
knowledge, should pray for us, but not prescribe our 
prayers. If inspiration has left us to the expression of 
our own desires, uninspired men may not restrict us 
to the adoption of theirs. God demands our hearts, 
and not the reading of forms ; which may be lawful 
for him who thinks them such, but not to him who 
doubts their propriety. As in joint prayer, by the 
mental adoption of so much as we approve, we make 
it our own ; so in written forms, that only is our 
prayer, which the heart offers up to God. That by 
forms the weak may be led and profited, is freely con- 
ceded; also, that he who leads in the pubHc duty, 
may provide a form, is allowable, though rarely ad- 
visable ; but that any should presume to alter the pub- 
lic worship which God has appointed, by the intro- 
duction of a system of prayers, which he has neither 
made nor authorized, is, to say the least, of extremely 
doubtful propriety. That we question the testimony, 
or disregard the authority of the Scriptures, except 
when they favor our preconceived ideas, is a charge 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 295 

which does no honor to the anonymous writer in the 
Church Register, and we hope destitute of support 
In the temple service, there were men appointed to 
sing, and their psalms were necessarily preconceived; 
but that the prayers, except mere benedictions, were 
such, should be proved. We know only that each 
prayed by himself; except in extraordinary cases, 
when the prayers were new, and suited to the oc- 
casion : such were those of Solomon, Asa, Jehosaphat, 
Hezekiah, and Ezra.^ If they accommodated their 
prayers to their wants, why should not we ? If in their 
darker dispensation they had no liturgy, in the modern 
limited sense of that word, why should we, under the 
light of the gospel, be restricted from expressing the 
desires of our hearts ? 

That the Saviour worshipped in the synagogue and 
attended in the temple, and fulfilled all righteousness, 
as a " minister of the circumcision," unto his death, is 
certain. But that therein he found and used a liturgy, 
is begging the question. If Dr. Lightfoot could have 
restored it, we should have rejoiced to use it, so far 
as the change of dispensations would allow, and would 
not consent to exchange it, for all the uninspired 
ones that have been since contrived. But that there 
was no such thing, can be made as clear as a negative 
will admit. 

He gave a form to his disciples at their request, as 
John had done to his. This was suited to the Jewish 
worship, in praying for the coming of the " kingdom," 
which, according to Daniel, "the God of heaven 
would set up," and in asking " nothing in the name'^ of 
Christ; but was never used by the apostles, or first 
Christians in public, so far as known to us. It was 
soon, nevertheless, adopted for baptized persons, and 
refused to catechumens. We modify its meaning, and 
prize it, making it our pattern, and, in some instances, 

a 1 Kings viii. 22; 2 Chron. xiv. 11, xx. 5; Isaiah xxxvii. 15, 
16; Ezra ix. 5, 6, 7. 



296 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

adopting its words as a form. But we cannot affirm 
with this writer — " When ye pray, ye shall say, was his 
preface and command, by which we are to under- 
stand, that on all occasions of prayer, whatever else is 
used, this must not be omitted." We think this was 
the preface, or introduction, of Christ's answer to the 
request of his disciples, but not the preface of the 
prayer itself, otherwise it must still be offered up with 
the prayer. The preface, or introduction, of the 
prayer, seems to us to be, " Our father who art in 
heaven." Nor do we view it as a command, for then 
no other prayer could be offered. Also, this writer 
makes the Saviour to assert in general, what he spoke 
under peculiar circumstances. "Lord teach us to 
pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said 
unto them, when ye pray, say," &c. (Luke xi. 1, 2.) 
" Teach us to pray," was equivalent unto. Give us a 
pattern of prayer. This meaning is the same as when 
he said, (Mat vi. 9,) "after this manner pray ye." 
The plural was used in the prayer, because the an- 
swer given by the Saviour, and his address on the 
other occasion, were in each instance, to more than 
to one person. 

The Lord's prayer " is a sanction for set forms, in 
the public service of God, practised as it was by the 
Jews, the Saviour, and his apostles, which rebuts all 
reasoning." That a single prayer made under the 
Mosaic dispensation, and suited to it, given to indi- 
viduals without any reference to public worship, and 
before any authority had issued for preaching the gos- 
pel, should be a sanction for a public liturgy in the 
church of Christ, is a position which " rebuts," that is, 
drives back, " all reasoning." In Matthew vi. the Sa- 
viour directs to the closet, and when the door is shut, 
to pray in secret, rather than ostentatiously, as the 
Pharisees, to make prayers in public, which being to 
be seen, were long and individual, not joint. When 
afterwards his disciples asked for a pattern, and he 
gave the same to them, there was not a word to show, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 297 

that either they or he intended this for public worship. 
The writer having failed in showing, that the Jews had 
any public form, of course his inference, that the Sa- 
viour had used the same, is wholly without foundation; 
and his conclusion, that the apostles pursued a form, 
because their master did, is consequently a groundless 
supposition. 

That joint worship is expressly required, and may 
also be argued from "oneness of profession, doctrine, 
and object," in other words, one faith, one hope, one 
baptism, one God, and Father of all, is freely and uni- 
versally admitted ; but union in prayer by no means 
requires, that there should be written forms ; for where 
two or three determine to convene to pray touching 
any thing, though their object be the same, their peti- 
tions may be according to their respective views, or if 
one prayer be offered, in which the rest unite, it may 
be expected to be new, and suited to the occasion, not 
in language composed without reference to the parti- 
cular case. 

To "offend on one point is to be guilty of all," when 
an offence is committed with knowledge, because it is 
a denial of the authority of the lawgiver; but to con- 
clude all in guilt, who conscientiously prefer to pray 
without the use of unauthorized forms, does indeed 
"rebut all reasoning." Neither the ancient Jews, nor 
Jesus Christ, nor his apostles have been, or can be 
shown, to have used a liturgy, or system of written 
prayers ; nor were such pubUc forms in use in the 
first Christian churches ; when, therefore, we offer the 
desires of our hearts in the language which our minds 
suggest, we follow the example of Christ, his apostles 
and the primitive churches. 

Of the lawfulness, or even expediency of using 
forms of prayer, we make no dispute, and often re- 
commend them. But we deny, that any authority to 
introduce them into Christian assemblies can be fairly 
deduced either from precept or example, of Christ or 
his apostles ; and that they were either necessary to 



298 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

those who were inspired, or at all important to the 
discharge of the duty of public prayer. 

In the early persecutions, the books of the Chris- 
tians were sought after, and burnt ; but no books of 
prayers, the Scriptures and utensils only are men- 
tioned. Thus the argument against the use of written 
prayers, from a total silence, is equivalent to that 
against images. The most learned amongst the ad- 
vocates of written forms, assert that every church 
was left to its own creed and form of prayer ; and 
that afterwards the churches of a district agreed to a 
conformity among themselves. The first is proved by 
Sozomen, who asserts this of a church which arose 
from another ; but he was in the fifth century. The 
latter is supported by the words of the council of Mi- 
levis, in which Augustine sat ; but it extended only to 
a portion of Africa, and was adopted as a precaution 
against Pelagianism. 

That amen was spoken aloud at the end of prayers, 
appears from the New Testament ; this Jerom, in his 
day, the cotemporary of Augustine in the fifth cen- 
tury, compared to the thunder of heaven.^ The sur- 
sum corda, raise your hearts, has been referred to the 
apostle James, by Cyril of Jerusalem, but too late, for 
he died A. D. 380. No mention of public forms of 
prayer was made in the first centuries, unless the 
Lord's prayer, the benediction, and sacramental 
words be exceptions. Justin Martyr, A. D. 140, de- 
scribes to the emperor, the worship of a Christian as- 
sembly, in which the presiding presbyter prayed " ac- 
cording to his ability." Tertullian, in the beginning 
of the third century, says, in his Apology for Chris- 
tianity, " We look up to heaven with hands expanded, 
because pure ; with heads uncovered, because we are 
not ashamed; finally, without a monitor, because, 
from the heart we pray for rulers — army — senate — 



b "Ad similitudinem celestis tonitru, amen reboat." — Prsef. 
adGalatas. 



LITURGICAL CONblDERATIONS. 299 

people — the world." Basil, in the fourth century, ad» 
vises how to pray ; to begin with addressing God, " as 
much as you can," in the words of Scripture ; then 
give thanks ; then confess ; then offer your petitions. 
He prepared not a liturgy, but hymns to be sung in 
alternate verses ; a practice which was in early and 
general use. Much error has been incurred, by tak- 
ing several words which expressed hymns to signify 
prayers. The centuriators themselves were thus de- 
ceived. That in the fifth century, " scarcely two 
prayed alike," is affirmed by Socrates, the historian, of 
his own age. Gregory the First, instituted "the 
whole institution of the mass," and how much it re- 
sembles the Pagan worship, it is painful to behold. 
Pope Adrian, A. D. 796, confirmed the use of Grego- 
ry's, against a false one, called the mass of Ambrose. 
Such is the origin of that liturgy, which the pious 
writer in the Church Register deems it sinful to neg- 
lect. 

Believing that liturgies, confirmations, festivals and 
canonical ordinations as manifestly rest upon merely 
human authority, as do image worship, prayers to 
saints, and prayers for the dead, we feel, nevertheless, 
no disposition to dispute with those who follow them. 
Self- vindication is our only aim ; for when it is assert- 
ed that the liturgy is commanded of God, and that we 
are guilty of the whole law for neglecting this duty, 
we stand impeached, either of the ignorance of those 
things, which we, who teach others, ought to investi- 
gate ; or of that, which is far worse, of disingenuous- 
ness. We doubt not the conscientiousness of this 
writer, but we do question the correctness of his infor- 
mation ; yet, at the same time, acknowledge the duty 
of investigating the truth ; and profess our readiness to 
adopt his prayer book, so soon as he shall make it 
clear, that we ought so to do. Custom may have ren- 
dered a form important to him ; to us it would prove an 
incumbrance. The Searcher of hearts needs not our 
words to know our desires ; our prayers may ascend 



300 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

in the unformed language of breathings of submission 
and of gratitude ; yet words, without utterance, may- 
be advantageously conceived for ourselves, or used 
for others ; but then they must be spoken or written- 
In like manner, we adopt the prayers of others by as- 
senting and joining mentally ; or by aspirations with- 
out uttering a single word ; or by following in words, 
or by adding our amen. We may offer written 
prayers in the same manner ; but when long famihar, 
they neither awaken nor engage the attention in such 
manner as those which are suggested by the imme- 
diate reflection of our minds on the things we express, 
or are uttered in the striking language of another's 
thoughts. In the view of a holy God, neither style 
nor sentiment, but the temper of the mind ; not the 
eloquent address, but the humbling sense of his ma- 
jesty and our nothingness, of his mercy and our 
wants ; not the profession of a dependence on the 
merits of Christ, but the affiance of the soul upon the 
only mediation, either expressed with the utmost sim- 
plicity, or breathed from a devout heart, constitutes 
prayer. Imperfections, worse than of diction, exist 
in all our services. Defect of erudition is a matter of 
minor importance. The prayers of Indian Sarah, in 
hunger and rags, are as acceptable as those read from 
the splendid folio of a cathedral, by the archbishop of 
Canterbury in lawn sleeves. When the fire of love, 
glowing in the language of artless simplicity, engages 
and carries the hearts of the people ; and every soul, 
rapt in the exercise, rises to the very foot of the 
throne ; heaven and earth are brought together ; even 
spectators are awed into silence and consternation. 
When do such effects follow the reading of a litur- 
gy? After long observation, an obscure expression 
has rarely occurred in our public prayers ; they have 
been obviously conformed to the truth, and often to 
the language of Scripture ; the style, the manner, the 
sentiment were all adapted to the worshippers, whilst 
they who uttered them, evidently realized themselves 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 301 

in their approaches to God, as joining with all Chris- 
tians of every denomination, the general assembly of 
saints, whose names are written in heaven. To pray 
is the duty, and not to conflict about the mode. If 
each is accountable for himself, each should be at 
liberty to choose without censure ; also, charity de- 
mands, that every one should be left to the full per- 
suasion of his own mind. 



Number III. 



That the lawfulness of composing and using a 
form may be justified by circumstances, is no more 
doubted by us, than the lawfulness of teaching the ig- 
norant how to pray. Had this been the question, the 
proofs and arguments of the writer in the Church 
Kegister, would have been relevant. But his pro- 
fessed object is, to show that the adoption of a liturgy, 
and the reading of prayers in public, are duties; and 
finding no command either in the Old or New Testa- 
ment of any such things, he attempts to establish them 
by the occasional joint prayers of the ancient Israel- 
ites, the sacerdotal benediction, and the Lord's prayer ; 
all of which being far less than a liturgy, in the pre- 
sent use of the term, fix the blame of neglecting such 
imaginary duties as much on them as on us. To 
prevent his asserting, that he has " proved" that the 
Jews " used a set form," we have neither power nor 
inclination. But if he can show, that the ancient 
Jews had, beside psalmody, a written form of prayer, 
more than the benediction, then has he countervailed 
the evidence, that every man offered his own prayer., 
except in joint addresses on extraordinary occasions, 
and has found what a learned bigotted dignitary of his 
2B 



302 LITTTRGICAL COiYSIDERATlONS, 

own church must have escaped, who tells us in a very- 
useful work, that, "neither of these," the stationary 
men of the temple, and the worshipping people of Is- 
rael, " had any public forms to pray by, nor any pub- 
He ministers to officiate to them therein, but all prayed 
in private by themselves, and all according to their 
own private conceptions — and so continued to do, all 
the while the public sacrifices were offering up both 
morning and evening." He says the truth, and that 
they had no liturgy may be rested in with as much 
confidence, as any negative not mathematical. But 
we hold him not to the concessions of his party, for 
we admit no opinions where evidence only is re- 
quired. 

We are surprised, that we should be put to the ne- 
cessity of asserting, that because the ancient Jews did, 
on some extraordinary occasions, join in prayer to 
God, it by no means follows, that in their temple-ser- 
vice they continually joined in pubHc prayers. This 
defect wholly destroys the writer's superstructure of a 
presumption, that Christ and his disciples used a set 
form of prayer. That the Saviour did authorise joint 
prayer, and that it is our duty, under the gospel dis- 
pensation, no one denies : but so far is this fact from 
supporting his argument for a liturgy, that the circum- 
stance of his expressly enjoining this duty strengthens 
the position, that even joint prayer had not been either 
his, or their previous custom. The proofs brought 
from the second and third centuries, that Christ had 
" taught his disciples how to pray," by no means es- 
tablish, either that the apostles, or that the Christian 
churches in the days of the apostles, used it as a public 
form. That it was in the second century rehearsed 
in public, which we now do, is no more a proof, that 
the churches then had, and read a liturgy of written 
forms, than the same fact proves, the Presbyterian 
churches in our day have written prayers, which they 
read in their public service. 

This writer cannot show us, that any apostle, or 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. SOB 

any church in the first century, ever used the Lord's 
prayer as a form, so much as once. A mere possi- 
bihty is no proof; and were this fact granted him, it 
could not sustain his argument ; for, that it was law- 
ful, is no evidence that it was necessary. We do not 
deny, that the giving of the prayer was a permission 
to use it as a form, though given merely as a pattern; 
but we 'think it was not commanded, because the Sa- 
viour's words so understood exclude every other 
prayer. 

If it were allowable for us to put the issue of the 
public cause, upon the question, w^hether any one of 
the ten early writers, mentioned in his fourth number, 
has asserted that the church had a liturgy or form of 
public prayer, more than w^e have stated in our last 
number, we should not fear to do it ; notwithstanding 
the Christian church, from obvious causes, outstripped 
the synagogue in its early imitation of the temple-ser- 
vice. If all he can prove, extends only to the Lord's 
prayer, and the words of Christ in appointing the two 
ordinances, then let every thing be cast out of the 
prayer-book, except these, and the dispute is terminat- 
ed. But the cause of truth demands, that neither 
hearsay evidence, nor the mere opinions of any age, 
•or uninspired writer, should be received ; and the an- 
cient fathers are credible witnesses only of the facts 
within their own knowledge respectively. 

In the prayer of the disciples, {Acts iv. 24 — 3],; 
"" ihey all lift up their voices with one accord ; consequent- 
ly," he observes, "they all prayed the same thing, 
which they could not have done, had it not been pre- 
viously set in order and drawn up,'^ " Could not" one 
have spoken it, and "all" the rest repeated after him? 
■" Could not" one have thus prayed, and " all" the rest 
have " lifted up their voice," amen, amen, " with one 
accord ?" When, in verse 31, " they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word with bold- 
ness," it is equally just to say, " they all" spoke " the 
same thing, which they could not have done, had it 



304 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

not been previously set in order and drawn up." Here 
the argument for reading prayers and sermons, stands 
supported by the same circumstances and words, and 
no doubt they may be affirmed of the apostles with 
equal truth. Let this mode of expression be tried in 
other passages. "In Acts 1, 10, 11," " two men in 
white apparel stood — and said, the men," 6z:c. Did 
the two angels use a precomposed set form of address? 
Peter's speech, ch. iii. 12 — 26, is, in ch. iv. 1, referred 
to John as w^ell as himself, in similar language, " and 
as they spake to the people." In each instance the 
act of the one having the concurrence of the other, 
was, with the utmost propriety, referred to both. Did 
each elder, (ch. i^. 6, 7,) ask the same question of 
Peter and John? Afterwards (ch. v. 29) the answer of 
Peter is considered as the answer of the other apos- 
tles. " Then Peter and the other apostles, answered," 
&c. But this prayer (ch. iv. 24) " was previously set 
in order and drawn up !" There was no time for it ; 
Peter and John " being let go, they went to their own 
company, and reported all that the chief priests and 
elders had said unto them ; and when they heard that, 
they lift up their voices with one accord, and said," 
&c. ' It was the sudden effusion of their hearts ; if 
they had appointed any of their number to retire and 
draw up a form of prayer, worthy of the occasion, 
lest the impressive circumstances should induce them 
to betray more zeal than knowledge ; instead Of the 
feehng here described, the record would have been a 
lifeless form, and the worship a species of calculation 
bordering on hypocrisy. But " they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost ;" what need could there be, in 
their state, to " set in order and draw up" a prayer ? 
After all, if we could believe this pious writer's con- 
struction of the passage, this special case would be no 
proof, either of the existence of a public Hturgy at the 
period, or that a form of prayer was used in the ordi- 
nary worship of the apostles. 

Because prayer was made without ceasing of the 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 305 

church unto God for " Peter," who was imprisoned, 
the writer supposes, that it was, in all probability, in 
strict unison with the custom of set forms. But until 
such custom has been proved, no such probability exists. 
When the Presbyterian churches agree to pray for 
some object, no one infers, that they " agreed upon 
before hand, a set form ; nor would the doing this, on 
a special occasion, be a ground even of probability that 
they used a public liturgy. Upon such probabilities, 
nevertheless, this writer has attempted to erect a de- 
monstration of an ancient Jewish liturgy, founding it 
merely upon these instances, in which the people, upon 
extraordinary occasions, offered up a joint prayer, 
which he presumes was preconceived and written, 
although, at all other times, they prayed like the 
Pharisee and the Publican, each by himself. Neither 
is that which is occasional common, nor is joint 
prayer necessarily preconceived, written and read. 

The desire of establishing an ancient Jewish liturgy, 
led Dr. Lightfoot to suppose the eighteen benedictions 
to be that liturgy ; although destitute of proof suf- 
ficiently ancient, and carrying on their face, that they 
were written since the dispersion, and when there 
was neither temple nor sacrifice. 

Justice is desirable in all things ; to deduce sweep- 
ing conclusions from imbecile and unsupported pre- 
mises, is unjust. This waiter is safe in point of cha- 
racter, because his name is concealed : and the inter- 
rogative mode of his inference is probably a designed 
salvo for his conscience, when he says : " Coupling 
the evidence of the general use of the Lord's prayer 
by the apostles, with the strong testimony of the in- 
stances recorded in the Acts, can any one doubt of the 
authority of set forms ? rather, can any one doubt of 
the necessity of them'?" There has been no evidence 
of the general " use of the Lord's prayer by the apos- 
tles," no, not a solitary example of any such thing, nor 
can this writer produce one. The " testimony of the 
instances recorded in the Acts," we have seen proves 
2b2 



306 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

nothing more, than that the disciples joined in prayer, 
on particular occasions : but of their using a form in 
those instances, not a word is said, and even the pro- 
bability in each case is excluded by the circumstances. 
Consequently, the " coupling" them together must be 
precisely the addition of two noughts. But the writer's 
first inference is the " authority of set forms." If he 
means that they may be lawfully used, to this no one ob- 
jects ; let every one use them who chooses ; and we 
hope many do with real devotion. But if he intends by 
the phrase, that it was either the precept or practice of 
Christ or his apostles, to pray by set forms, wh-at he 
says is perfectly gratuitous. His second conclusion 
from his unsupported premises, is the " necessity^' of set 
forms. There not having been a single instance 
shown, either of the use of the Lord's prayer, or of 
any other set form by the disciples, the inference ought 
to have been, that they are not necessary. Prayer is 
the offering up of the desires of the heart, and why 
may not every one, who knows how to express his 
thoughts on other subjects, speak his wants to God? 
Nevertheless, he who has never cherished any desires, 
except those which were previously written for his 
use, and has been taught by this writer, that an at- 
tempt to pray without a set form would be presump- 
tion, and a want of humility, may feel a necessity of 
such aid ; and let him have it free of censure. But 
we are said to "neglect" the use of forms, " from ig- 
norance of the Scriptural authority of such custom." 
Ignorant as we are, we shall not be also ungraieful to 
this writer, if he will show us, where the Scriptures 
exhibit such a custom; and promise to give no more 
" vent to our own words" in public prayer, when he 
shall evince set forms to have been " the ordinances 
of Christ, and the practice of his apostles." 

The zeal of this unknown writer was the most pro- 
bable cause of his astonishment, w^hen he asked : 
" What a stretch of pride it is in man possessing only, at 
the utmost, the ordinary operations of the Spirit, to 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 307 

suppose, that he can safely practise that, which the 
fully inspired of God in the earliest and freest impulse 
of inspiration, under the gospel covenant, did not 
practise !" The " ordinary operations" are the " more 
excellent way," and preferable to gifts. There is 
some singularity, also, both in denominating them in- 
spiration, and in supposing them compatible with a 
*^ stretch of pride.^^ But waiving these things, we ap- 
peal to the writer's own conscience, and ask, how he 
could assert, that the apostles " did not practise" ex- 
temporary prayer, when he has in vain attempted to 
show a single proof that they ever used a form 1 The 
imputation of a " stretch of pride" cast upon every one 
who prays in public, without a precomposed form, 
must extend with equal justice to every one, who 
preaches as did the apostles, without writing; and 
also to every man, who ventures to walk alone when 
he might use crutches. 

The charges o^ pride and ignorance, we are, because 
fallen men, less able to parry, than the arguments for 
a Hturgy ; and to recriminate by showing, that the use 
of forms in praying and preaching is some evidence 
of both the flaws, might wound the feelings of the 
writer, if he should be, as we suppose he is, both a 
Christian and a gentleman. But w^hy should it be "a 
stretch of pride — to suppose that we would safely 
practise" extemporary prayer, if we have spent as 
much time, labor, and expense in obtaining knowledge 
and language, as we ought to have done ? And why 
should we aim at a character for correctness, which 
is impossible to human nature? We apprehend no 
danger; and think we have followed as closely the 
examples of Christ and his apostles, as they who read 
or rehearse every word. If we should sit down 
to compose a prayer, and think God not to see what 
we are doing, till we have prepared it, and appear in 
the public desk to read it, we disparage his perfections; 
but if he sees us, in all our deliberations upon what we 
will say, and what withhold, we have gained nothing 



308 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

in point of safety. If by the terms, " safely •practise^'' 
the writer had respect to the approbation of men, 
which we can scarcely imagine, such argument for 
forms is contemptibly puerile, and the apprehensions 
of danger idolatrous. 



Number IV. 



To serve the writer under this title in the Church 
Register, we will concede any thing that is true ; and 
will cheerfully admit, that if any part of the worship 
under the Mosaic dispensation was not typical, and 
has not been removed by the gospel, it still continues : 
and that thus, not only the right of children to be re- 
ceived by circumcision into the church, whose parents 
were members, not being taken away, and baptism 
now evidently occupying the place of circumcision, 
infant baptism is plainly justified ; but also the apos- 
tles were left both for the mode and subjects of bap- 
tism, almost entirely to their previous Jewish customs. 
At his reasoning for the baptism of females, because 
salvation is offered to all, of which he thinks they only 
are capable, who have been admitted by baptism into 
" the state of covenanted grace," we hesitate ; because 
baptism, although a sign only of passing from a sinful 
to a holy state, and not the change itself, either of na- 
ture or of state, was anciently confounded with and 
called regeneration ; yet as it cannot produce on the 
mind a mechanical effect, irrespectively of its own 
choice ; so when Christ distinguished between being 
horn of the water and of the spirit, his words certainly 
did neither imply, that the one birth was the same as 
the other, nor that the one was the cause of the other. 
This doctrine, like his liturgy, with its confirmation, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 309 

canonical ordination, and nnany other things, should 
have been, at the Reformation, abandoned as human 
inventions. 

Prayer is the common duty of Jev^ and Gentile, and 
in its natur.e personal, M^hether public or private, being 
the language of the heart, and the mode consequently 
unimportant. Among the distinguished people, the 
emblem of Divine Majesty rested on the mercy-seat ; 
there he put his name ; from thence blessed the wor- 
shippers. The priests, as mediators, offered the morn- 
ing and evening sacrifices, and burned the incense be- 
tween the mercy-seat and the people, " who were pray- 
ing without." (Luke i. 9, 10.) The incense of the 
priests and the prayers of the saints, are often asso- 
ciated in the Scriptures. (Exod. xxx. 67 ; Ps. cxli. 2, 
xxxviii. 2 ; Rev. v. 8, viii. 3, 4.) The sanctuary, the 
priests, and the incense were types, (Heb. ix. 24,) but 
now Christians may draw near with boldness to the 
throne of grace. (Heb. iv. 14, 16, x. 21, 22.) The 
Sovereign of the Universe is the object of prayer. Pie 
may have mercy upon whom He will ; but He will 
maintain the honor of his rectoral government, and 
extend his mercy only through Christ. The work of 
the priests was not to speak the petition of the people, 
but to act as typical mediators ; and whilst they were 
offering sacrifices, and burning the incense of the 
morning and evening, the people at the temple, in the 
synagogues, in the streets and market places, in their 
closets or in foreign lands, were praying with their 
faces towards the mercy-seat. Nevertheless, if it can be 
shown that there was a liturgy under the former dis- 
pensation, in public use in the temple, we are as ready 
to receive and use it, with suitable modifications, as 
we are to sing the Psalms of David. But if the truth 
really is, that each appeared and prayed in his own 
words, and considered that the pubHc sacrifices might 
afford him the advantage of procuring acceptance for 
his requests, he asked for himself, not in preconceived 
written forms, but whatsoever he thought he most 



310 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

needed. In like manner, when a few Christians are 
assembled, the presence of God is promised to their 
worship ; and whether one utters a prayer, or many- 
pray in succession, the prayer is still necessarily seve- 
ral, for each adopts what suits his views, and adds 
what he chooses in mental aspirations, unembarrassed 
by set words ; and that God, who sees the heart, will 
answer the prayer of faith. If it be a printed form, it 
is equally prayer, by those who offer it up, making it 
their own, but not otherwise. 

An argument predicated upon the want of a prohibi- 
tion of set forms, is but a waste of words, unless it be 
first shown, that such forms had previously existed. 
To the challenge given by the writer in the Church 
Register, " to adduce one instance that contains any 
allusion to such prohibition," we answer, we will take 
up the gauntlet the moment he shows " the custom of 
using set forms in the public worship of the Jews," 
prior to the Christian era ; and we shall be satisfied, 
if he can show precept, example, or even an allusion 
to a written Hturgy in the Scriptures : and common 
sense dictates, that no prohibition can be reasonably 
expected, of that which had no previous existence. 
The amount of his argument seems to be, that every 
thing not prohibited is lawful; which will justify the 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 
We shall never object to their using set forms of 
prayer, who prefer to do so : but we censure the de- 
nominating any thing the command of God, which is 
of merely human appointment, and pronounce it to be 
will-worship. It is probable, that neither Aaron, nor 
Jeroboam, designed to change the object of worship ; 
they introduced only other signs of the divine pre- 
sence. But their innovations invaded the divine pre- 
rogative, and were treason. Liturgies having neither 
precept, nor example under either dispensation, fall 
under the same censure ; and although they may be 
used innocently by those who are accustomed thus to 
worship, for prayer is the desire of the heart ; yet 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 311 

when introduced either by civil or ecclesiastical au- 
thority, as the command of God, who has commanded 
no such thing, it is an error like his, who said, " these 
be thy gods, {meaning the singular^ Oh Israel, which 
brought thee out of the land of Egypt." We are 
forced to these representations, that this pious writer 
may see, that it is neither insincerity nor pride which 
prevents our confessing such practice to be " Scriptu- 
ral and apostolic," but a perfect conviction that it is 
neither ; and a persuasion that it ought not to have 
been introduced. If prayer, even when joint, be per- 
sonal and several, and strictly the application of a 
child to a father in every instance, the unrenewed 
nev^er pray; for every one -who asketh receiveth, and 
they who receive not, have not asked. When prayer, 
therefore, is defined the offering up the desires of the" 
heart, it must be understood only of holy desires ; 
otherwise it is an abomination, and these exist on]y 
in the justified. More may agree in their petitions, 
but there is not so much one prayer as a concert of 
prayers, which are as numerous as the believing wor- 
shippers. 

The fifth number presents also an argument, novel 
to us, and ingenious — " among the diversities of gifts 
— there is no mention of the gift of praying ;" whence 
he infers that the necessity of it was prevented by the 
custom, " of offering up congregationally their prayers 
in a pre-composed and set form." This is a fine ex- 
ample of the non causa pro causa, the assignation of a 
wrong cause. Gifts were distinguished from grace; 
those might exist wheie the party was still an enemy, 
grace only where the disposition was changed. So 
far as prayer consisted of words or sentiments, it 
might be a gift ; but more strictly, prayer is the offer- 
ing up of the desires of the heart, under which aspect, 
it is moral, not physical, of grace not by gift, and ordi- 
nary not extraordinary. The nature of prayer, there- 
fore, and not the use of forms, prevented the enumera- 
tion of prayer among the gifts, which were bestowed 



312 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

under the administration of the Spirit, in planting the 
churches. But this advocate of the divine authority 
of hturgies, thinks his argument derives "weight from 
the apostle's injunction — not to pray in an unknow^n 
tongue, because the people could not say amen, to such 
prayers :" and he infers, " neither can they say amen 
to prayers uttered by the ministers extemporaneously ; 
because they are to know what they are praying for, 
and how they are praying, which men in general can- 
not do, when any person, though inspired, is praying 
for them in words and sentiments which are his own, 
and unknown to others before they are uttered." If 
inspired, it is scarcely discernible how the words and 
sentiments should be his own. Also, in public, which 
is joint prayer, the speaker does not usually " pray 
for them" who hear, but uses the first person plural 
But that the prohibition to pray in an unknown tongue 
should aid the cause of liturgies, it must be presumed 
that the church of Corinth had liturgies in different 
tongues, and that the apostle meant to restrict them to 
the use of those only which the people could under- 
stand. What would the Cathohcs say to this ? But the 
design of the apostle was to correct, and prevent the 
abuse of gifts; and particularly the vanity of praying 
in the words of an unknown language. The gift of 
tongues was important, that strangers might hear the 
gospel; but public prayers should be spoken in the 
common language, that every one might make them 
their own by their amen, and do the very thing of 
which the writer has said, " neither can they say 
amen to prayers uttered extemporaneously." 

Another argument adduced is, that " as all things 
are to be done decently and i?i order, so the best way of 
insuring that decency and order, was, that all should 
pray with one mind and one mouth, which could only 
be done congregationally by the adoption of prayers 
one and the same, and known and understood by all." 
This precept of decency and order was used by Bel- 
larmine to establish the whole service and ceremonies 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 313 

of the church of Rome ; and is as valid for the whole 
as it is for a part ; and this writer is as much bound 
by it to receive the popish ritual, as we are to adopt 
his. Our ideas of decency and order are probably 
diverse. He thinks decency and order impossible in a 
congregation where all rise up to pray, and hear in 
profound silence the words of him who leads, and lift 
up in aspirations his petitions, adding what breathings 
they choose, in the name of Christ, to the throne of 
God, whom they thus approach with the confidence of 
children to a father. To us, probably through desue- 
tude, when we hear the i-eader's words echoed back 
from every corner of the church, in every possible 
tone, loud and soft, harsh and smooth, hurried and 
slow ; and our ears are not more offended with dis- 
cords, than our eyes by a confusion of countenances, 
some gay and absent, others hanging upon the lips of 
the speaker, and others fixed upon their books, which 
of the two modes of worship is most favorable to de- 
cency and order, appears not doubtful. Nor is there 
with us any uncertainty, either about the time or 
manner of the introduction of hturgies, as we hinted 
in our second number. We not only have all the 
certainty that a negative admits, that none of these 
written forms existed in the first ages of Christianity; 
but also evidence, that they came in at a period when 
the church had become greatly corrupted. The simi- 
larity which the liturgy advocated by this writer, bears 
unto the I..atin Catholic liturgy, shows its origin ; and 
the clerical sentiment of the day was no doubt ex- 
pressed by a learned doctor of the estabhshment, 
when he said, " As to our churches prescribing a litur- 
gy of set forms of prayer and administration of sacra- 
ments, and other public offices, it is easy to show, that 
symbolizing with the church of Rome is so far from 
being culpable, and much more from being a just 
ground of separation from our church, that it is highly 
commendable." Yet we do not think, and therefore 
cannot say of ours, that it is the only mode in which 
2C 



314 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

worship* can be rightly offered ; and were surprised, 
when we read in the Church Register, that to " pray 
with one mind and one mouth,'' can " only be done 
congregationally by the adoption of prayers one and 
the same, and known and understood by all." We 
had thought any mode sufficient in which the desire 
of the heart can be offered ; but ii one mouth be essen- 
tial, how can many be one ? 

An argument is drawn also from the meaning of the 
original word rendered " order," in the passage of 
Scripture last cited ; which, he thinks, denotes a pre- 
vious arrangement and setting in order ; hence, he 
asks, if Paul may not have referred to an " order 
which had been prescribed ?" His interrogations imply 
a doubtfulness, which it is to his credit not to conceal. 
His perplexities demand commiseration. But he as- 
cends to no higher authority than the opinions of a 
modern German lexicographer, which merits no an- 
swer. A writer of his own church, understanding this 
same word to signify a rule or canon, has used it as an 
argument against allowing toleration to our fathers ; 
a favor v/e do not ask; and has observed in the true 
spirit of these times : " We must not break God's com- 
mands in charity to them, and therefore we must not 
perform public services indecently and disorderly, for the 
sake of tender consciences." Thank heaven, those 
days are past. 

That " the church of England," meaning, we sup- 
pose, in America, "holds fast the form of sound 
w^ords" in " articles of belief," and " modes of wor- 
ship," is matter of gratulation with this writer, in 
which we also partake ; for we think her articles are 
sound in the main, and. of her modes of worship 
would make no complaint. That much piety exists 
among her evangelical members, we are happy to 
have no doubt ; of the rest, we presume not to judge ; 
but possessing kind feelings to the denomination, as a 
branch of the church of Christ, we wish never to say, 
or write a word against her government or ritual : 



LITURGICAL COlVSinERATIONS. 315 

but the same uncharitable spirit, which, by passing an 
ecclesiastical ostracism, disgusted and exiled our 
fathers, has followed us in our retreat with its old, ig- 
norant, and unfounded monopoly. To vindicate the 
truth is a duty easy, all that is necessary to us 
being merely to disclose the facts of ancient history, 
w^hen the unadulterated cause of the gospel will re- 
commend itself 



Number V: 



Whilst the Christian reads the Psalms of David 
with self-application, pleasure springs from the reflec- 
tion, that he reads the w^ord of God ; yet ■ in almost 
every Psalm wc pass by things which we do not lift 
up to the throne of grace. To these set forms of in- 
spiration none object ; but their first design was praise. 
Had the apostles left us set forms of prayer, as they , 
must have been also inspired, they would have fallen 
into general use. If the author of Liturgical Conside- 
rations, in the Church Register, could have shown 
" the use of set forms, by the apostles," " it matters not 
on how few occasions," we should have gladly re- 
ceived them ; but w^hether a solitary instance has ap- 
peared, an impartial public can judge. His supposi- 
tion, that apostolic practice would continue to A. D. 
120 or 130, is reasonable ; and w^e concede still more, 
that though he has not shown, that the apostles used 
set forms of prayer in public, yet if the churches in 
any short period after their day, did in fact use such 
forms, then must they have been in use in the times of 
inspiration; and we follow his researches on this 
point with impartiality. 

In Clement, who is first adjured, we have the utmost 



316 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

confidence. But what in his letter could have invited 
the appeal, baffles conjecture. The Greek word 
" liturgy" does occur at each of the places cited, yet 
this writer's prudence has rendered it worship and service. 
The church at Corinth had existed long under those, 
who by the extraordinary gifts and guidance of the 
Spirit, planted the first churches; and this letter being 
written before the destruction of Jerusalem, they 
could have had presbyters but a few years. The ob- 
ject of the letter, being to cause them to receive again 
their presbyters, whom they had rejected, it is evident 
they had been averse to church order. To this Cle- 
ment presses them as the ordinance of God. ^^ Where, 
and by whom he wills things to be accomplished, he 
has ordained, in his sovereign pleasure; that all things 
piously done unto well pleasing, might be acceptable 
unto his own will." He then refers them to the ser- 
vices {liturgies) of the temple, appointed to the high 
priest, and the rest of the priesthood, alleging that lay- 
men were there restricted to their own duties. Im- 
mediately he observes, "let each one of you brethren 
praise God in his own sphere, living in a good con- 
science, each not exceeding the prescribed rule of his 
service, with reverence." Again he refers them to 
the worship at Jerusalem, and argues the greater guilt 
of the Christians at Corinth, from their greater know- 
ledge. The church was therefore not to continue 
without presbyters, nor their duties to be invaded by 
those, who had not been appointed to them. The de- 
sign of Clement is clear, and his reasoning forcible, 
but we discern not even the most remote allusion, in 
either passage, to the use of set forms in w^orship. 

"Polycarp exhorts the Philippians to return to the 
word, that was delivered from the beginning, watchiiig 
unto prayer.''^ This advice of Paul, Cyprian observes, 
"shows that they can obtain from God, what they ask, 
whom God sees to be watchi?ig i?i prayer." They re- 
commend an importunity like that of the Canaanite, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 317 

who would receive no denial, and .are rather an argu- 
ment against, than for set forms of prayer. 

The expressions "one common supplication," "one 
common prayer," "your joint prayers" in the letter 
ascribed to the pious Ignatius, and which are a blot 
upon his memory, imply no necessity, that the pray- 
ers should have been written and read; for if one led 
the worship, and the rest united, the prayer was oTie, 
joint, and common. In this mode the unlearned could 
unite as well as those who could read. If prayer 
books had been then the order of the day, the cum- 
brous machinery could not have escaped notice. 
These "powerful" prayers were of single congrega- 
tions, for though those spurious letters were written 
long after the death of the martyr, and when episco- 
pacy had commenced in its parochial form; yet even 
then, liturgies in the sense of written prayers, were 
unknown. Evidence to procure belief, should flow 
from pure fountains, but the writer of those letters 
though unworthy of credit, had not anticipated litur- 
gies. 

"Tertullian does not notice in his apology any 
change." Unless liturgies had been introduced in his 
day, there w^as no change, that could have accrued on 
this subject; but we have seen, that they w^ere intro- 
duced long afterwards. "Besides the use of the Lord's 
prayer, and the psalms, he mentions the subject of 
their constant supplications, from w^hich we may infer 
that there were additional forms used by the Christians, 
besides that perfect one, given by our Lord himself." 
Although the repeated exhibition of the Lord's prayer 
affords a fair presumption that there was no other pat- 
tern given by him, yet this writer thence infers the ex- 
istence of more. Also, because Tertullian mentions 
different subjects of prayer, he presumes the prayers must 
have been written and read; but as none such have been 
shown to have then existed, and no public forms to have 
beenthen in use, except the rehearsal of the Lord's pray- 
er, the presumption is precisely the reverse,and the infer- 
2o2 



318 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

ence against him. Christians were persecuted, because 
they would not offei to the gods sacrifices for the Em- 
peror ; Tertullian alleged that they could not apply to 
gods unable to afford help, but that they prayed to the 
Almighty for the Emperor ; and to establish the truth 
of what he said, he referred his enemies to the Scrip- 
tures which required Christians to pray for their ene- 
mies, their persecutors, and for Emperors, and for all 
who were in authority. Apol. c. 31. If Christians had 
then used written forms of prayer, they must have 
been produced as the best evidence, but his reference 
to the Scriptures, to prove the principles of Christians, 
evinces that they had no forms, which they could bring 
in defence. 

Cyprian is next adduced ; "whose evidence is still 
more explicit, when he warns Christians, not to babble 
their prayers, in unpremeditated, or disorderly words; 
neither to use a tumultuous or confounding loquacity, 
and earnestly exhorts his flock, to take care their hearts 
and voices go together in prayer." We suppose the 
passage, here spoken of, to be, "non ventilare preces 
nostras inconditis vocibus, nee petitionem commendan- 
dam modeste Deo, tumultuosa loquacitate jactare : 
quia Deus non vocis, sed cordis auditor est." If the 
people, who were here reproved used only a written li- 
turgy, it is impossible, that they should have been guilty 
of babbling, disorderly words, and tumultuous loqua- 
city: but these iaiproprieties might readily have oc- 
curred in the secluded assemblies of zealous, perse- 
cuted Christians, where many successively led in 
prayer ; and especially, if they spoke aloud their amen, 
accompanied with pious effusions. Cyprian confirms 
this view by proposing immediately in the same para- 
graph the example of Hannah ; whom he affirms to 
have been a type of the church, who spoke not with her 
voice hut with her heart, — and obtained what she sought 
She certainly prayed without a written form, and the 
church was advised to pray as she did. This- "evi- 
dence is still more explicit," for it substitutes among 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 319 

the people mental, in the place of vocal prayer. But 
because the writing is on the subject of the Lord's 
prayer, which in the third century was publicly recited 
by memory, it may be thought, that he reproves the 
disorderly rehearsal of this aloud by the people; it 
must be remembered however that the accusation was 
of loquacity, which implies that they used their own 
words. 

''Gregory Thaumaturgus A. D. 270, composed or 
compiled a liturgy for the use of the churches in Cap- 
padocia, which continued to be used without any va- 
riation till the time of Basil about one hundred 

years after." We are sorry to see this hackneyed 
allegation here presented with absolute positiveness, 
notwithstanding the notoriety of the numerous objec- 
tions. If we suppose it to be Basil's, it is hearsay evi- 
dence, and not nearer to its time than a century; but 
it is contradicted by his sixty-third epistle, in so many 
words, wherein speaking to them of Gregory Thau- 
maturgus, he says, " you have preserved nothing.'* 
The evidence is allowed by Erasmus, who translated 
the piece, and by others, to have been in part, or 
whole, a forgery in the name of Basil; and this opinion 
was not founded merely upon diversity of style ; but a 
falsehood, of which that writer was incapable. But 
the words " they have not added any practice, word, 
or mystical type, besides what he had left them," do 
not speak that he had left them a liturgy. If the piece be 
genuine, it is a defence of Basil for varying the form of 
the doxology ; and in the whole of it we can find no- 
thing, which concerns forms or Hturgies, and the Greek 
terms rendered word, mystical, and type are each, in 
other parts of it, plainly used for the doxology. It is, 
therefore, and we believe justly denied, " that there 
ever was such a thing in the world as Gregory Thau- 
maturgus's liturgy," and we assert with much confi- 
dence, that we know not a particle of proof of any 
such thing. 
♦'Eusebius A. D. 315, in his life of Constantine-— 



320 LITURGICAL CON'SIDERATIONS. 

records even a form appointed by the Emperor to be 
used by his foreign soldiers." The first Christian 
Emperor being by the laws of the empire the pontifex 
maximus, was entitled to prescribe to the heathenish 
part of his army their religious rites ; and might frame 
this short prayer accommodated to " saint, to savage 
and to sage," wherein the sovereignty of God only is 
mentioned, without other titles, and not a word either 
peculiar to Christianity, or offensive to heathens 
is found. This was furnished to all in the Latin, 
that they might read and be prepared to rehearse it ; 
and on Sunday they paraded in an open field, when 
upon a signal given, they pronounced these words and 
no more. It was probably intended by the Emperor 
in one sense, and understood by his pagan soldiers in 
another. That it should be written was absolutely 
necessary, otherwise they could neither judge of, nor 
use it. It was rather a profession of allegiance, con- 
taining prayers for the Emperor and his family, than 
an act of worship. This is the first form made to be 
used as such in public, which the writer has found, 
and this was designed for, and rehearsed only by pa- 
gans, not by a Christian church. The residue of the 
army rested on the day, and without any hindrance re- 
sorted for worship to the Christian assembhes. This 
singular compromise of Constantine, is no proof, that 
there existed a liturgy of written prayers, even at that 
period, which was read in the churches. 

" He," Constantine, " also speaks of appeasing Christ 
by sacred pro^yer, and frequent litanies, as a mode of wor- 
ship well estabhshed." The theology of this passage 
was in character both for Constantine and Eusebius ; 
for neither of them had right views of the mediatorial 
character. The English word litany means a form of 
supplication ; the Greek word litany meant supplication 
itself; frequent is not in our copy. The reasons which 
prevented the anglicising the word liturgy in Clement, 
should have excluded the English word lita?iy here. 
This oversight is aggravated by the use of italics. 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATION'S. 321 

But we forbear; either disappointment may have ex- 
asperated zeal ; or the writer begged the question un- 
guardedly; yet justice to our cause demands, that we 
should say, what every discriminating mind will dis- 
cern, that the Greek words afford not a shadow of 
proof of any written forms of prayer whatever. 

" Gregory Nazianzen testifies of — Basil that the 
appointment of prayers was among his remarkable 
deeds." If forms had existed under both dispensa- 
tions, and if his wonder-working predecessor had left 
a Uturgy, from which the people never swerved in 
act, word, or mystic type, 'tis difficult to perceive how 
Basil's appointment of prayers should be a remarkable 
deed. But his prayers were sung ; and how Basil pro- 
moted the alternate way of singing, may be seen by 
his own account of it, in his sixty-third epistle. 

" This father also records that JuHan the apostate, 
in his endeavor to subvert Christianity, designed to 
form his pagan rites of worship like those already 
established by the Christians, and that he intended to 
institute a form of prayer.''^ The subtle designs of Ju- 
lian we admit, and have admired the wisdom and pru- 
dence of his advices to pagan priests, but a " form of 
prayer" was not that, which Gregory Nazianzen 
meant, or Julian intended. That the original word 
means also hymns in ancient writers, has been often 
abundantly shown. Also the words rendered fcyrm 
(literally, type in part) were designed to express partial 
resemblance. Julian knew, that the- Christian assem- 
blies were much occupied in, and highly delighted 
with their alternate psalmody, and he wished some- 
thing of the kind, to render paganism popular, and 
balance this advantage, possessed by the Christian 
worship. 

We have now followed the writer in the Church 
Register to the fourth century, and if we could from 
thence date the commencement of written public 
forms of prayer, so many w^ere the corruptions of the 
church at that period, that they would deserve no 



322 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



more regard, than if they had commenced in the pre- 
sent age. But to justify the representations we gave 
in a former number, we will consider the next proof, 
which derives much plausibihty from the modern 
senses of some of the terms. 

" In the council of Laodicia a canon was arranged 
that the same liturgy of prayer should he used at the ninlh 
hour and in the evening. This council w^as called 
about A. D. 310, principally on account of an innova- 
tion, which some persons were disposed to make by 
offering up their own pi^ayers one part of the day, and 
those which they had received from their forefathers 
on the other." The original word is liturgy, which to 
take in its modern sense is begging the question. This 
meaning ought first to be shown to be as old as that 
council; but it then meant any service of a pubHc na- 
ture. The Greek word liturgy occurs Acts. xiii. 2. 
Rom. XV. 16, 27. Philip, ii. 17, 30. 2 Cor. ix. 12. Heb. 
viii. 2, 6. ix. 21, but no one ventures to prove by the 
Greek of those passages the existence of set forms of 
written prayers. Also the word in the canon rendered 
prayers, is the same that we mentioned as often signi- 
fying psalms or hymns, and so it was understood by 
some of the Greek writers upon this canon. But 
against these things this writer has provided a de- 
fence, by giving us the design of the council in mak- 
ing this canon ; yet it is all perfectly gratuitous ; until 
he has proved, what he has alleged, he has done no- 
thing. We might also introduce, if opinions were any 
thing, that of a Greek historian, who says on this ca- 
non, what is more feasible, that there were afternoon 
hymns sung, but the people used others as vespers, or 
evening songs, in their meetings to prevent which the 
synod determined, that the afternoon praises should 
also be used in the evening. They designed probably 
to restrain irregularities, and promote devotion. And 
the canon which precedes it, and which provides, that 
two hymns or psalms should not follow in immediate 
succession, favors the opinion. This council w^as in- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 323 

considerable, is omitted by some, its date very uncer- 
tain, its authority nothing, and some of its canons a 
reproach. The thirteenth removed from the people 
the choice of their ministers; the fifteenth prohibited 
any in the church from singing, except those v^^ho 
went into the gallery of singers. Yet it maybe some 
evidence of the condition of the churches in the pro- 
consular Asia at that time, and does show, that either 
in their praises, or prayers, the people were restricted 
by the clergy assuming an authority not their due. 
But long afterwards, the third council of Carthage 
gave their approbation of some prayers, and directed 
that the people should also use those, which were col- 
lected by the wiser sort ; and they express their object 
to have been to exclude errors in faith. These things 
evince a gradual progress towards the public use of 
written prayers, and are consequently wholly irrecon- 
cileable with the opinion, that the church had a liturgy, 
in the modern sense of the word, from the days of the 
apostles. 

Cavilling against the expediency of set forms could not 
be, when neither a tongue nor a pen had been moved. 
Nor could we err from " the example prescribed by 
God, practised and sanctioned by our Saviour and his 
apostles, and persevered in by the Christian church," 
if there was neither such example or practice. Were 
the arguments of this writer as strong as his confi- 
dence, his labors would appear to more advantage, 
but he cannot expect us to beheve without, or contrary 
to evidence ; if such he has, he will oblige us by put- 
ting his finger upon a single fact, that will show a pub- 
lic liturgy or set form to have been used in the church, 
in or soon after the apostolic age ; for when we read 
of the effect of sinning upon a single point, we fear to 
trust that theology, which supposes any crime not so 
heinous as to exclude from salvatio?i. 



324 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

Number VI. 



The professed object of the seventh number, under 
this title in the Church Register, is to show, "what 
these forms and prayers were — employed in the" arv- 
dent "public worship." To special instances of writ- 
ten prayers, both national and private, in the Old Tes- 
tament, the attention of the reader has been called ; 
that psalms were sung in the temple, even statedly, no 
one denies ; also, that in the synagogues the Scrip- 
tures were read, and sometimes explained, is know^n 
to all who read the gospels. The first Christians were 
Jews, w^orshipped in the synagogues on the Sabbaths, 
in their own assemblies on the Lord's day, and were 
considered and tolerated by the Roman government 
only as Jews, the worship of the first churches must 
consequently have nearly conformed to that of the 
synagogues ; if this writer therefore can show a litur- 
gy of the synagogue, in the apostles' days, he will do 
much. 

"From the Mishna we learn that eighteen collects, 
or benedictions were used, which are ascribed to 
Ezra, the chief of the great Sanhedrim." 

The Mishna is a compilation of those traditions, 
which Christ censured. After the destruction of Je- 
rusalem by Titus, the Jews were again subjected to a 
second destruction ; their losses in public men and 
schools, and the scattering of the people into other 
countries, are the reasons assigned for the writing of 
their traditions. This labour was accomplished by a 
Rabbi, whose name is still fresh with them ; and was 
called the Mishna ; the date whereof is placed by 
universal consent between A. D. 150 and 200. The 
credit of the book is nothing, except with the sect, 
who receive its fables. The Mishna, differing from 
othei writings of the ancient Jews on the origin of the 
benedictions, a comparison has been made by Vitringa. 



Ll*rURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 325 

The evidence, that Ezra wrote the benedictions, comes 
too late, and is not only at best a mere hearsay, but 
wholly incredible. Had the benedictions existed from 
the days of Ezra, they must have been unwritten till 
the Mishna, which consists of things previously un- 
written. If such traditional prayers were possible, and 
could have existed ; why are they not mentioned in 
the New Testament? But they can tell their own age. 
We read in one of them ; "dwell in the midst of Jeru- 
salem, thy city, as thou hast promised, and build it 
quickly in our days, with a building, that shall continue 
for ever." In another it is said — "bring again the le- 
vitical ministry into the temple of thy house, and ac- 
cept quickly, with love and good will, the sacrifices of 
the Israelites, to be consumed with fire, w^ith their 
prayers," &c. Thus do the benedictions themselves 
show, that they were written, when the Jews had nei- 
ther city, nor temple, nor sacrifices. That they were 
composed since the dispersion, is evident from these 
words ; "call us by the sound of the great trumpet to 
our Hberty, and hft the standard, to which all our dis- 
persion may be gathered from tlie four regions of the 
earth to our own land." Also when they ask; "let 
there be no hope to the apostates from religion^ let all 
heretics suddenly perish, how many soever they be. 
May the kingdom of pride be eradicated, and suddenly 
broken in our days," they must have intended by apos- 
tates and heretics Jewish Christians, and by the proud 
kingdom the Roman empire. The sacrifices of the 
temple were of divine authority, until the death of 
Christ ; and they still, though improperly, continued 
when the epistle to the Hebrews was written ; and also 
when Clement wrote the letter, cited in our last num- 
ber. But as long as the city, temple, sacrifices, and 
levitical ministry remained, these prayers could not 
have been offered. Not only is it absurd to suppose, 
that either Christ, or his apostles, or the primitive 
churches ever did, or with propriety could have oflfer- 
ed these prayers ; but there is no evidence, upon 

2D 



326 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

which to found even a probability, that the Jews them- 
selves offered them, until after that dispersion, which 
followed the second destruction of the Jewish people. 

It is asserted that these benedictions, "formed their 
principal prayers, and the remainder probably were 
made up of the precatory parts of the psalms." As 
it is certain, that the eighteen benedictions were never 
offered in prayer in the temple, for then the people 
must have spoken falsely, because the prayers do 
themselves say, that there was neither temple, nor sa- 
crifice, nor priestly services ; so the probability that, 
"the remainder, were made up of the precatory parts 
of the psalms," is destitute of proof, unless singing be 
called reading. In the synagogues they were no doubt 
read with the other Scriptures ; but in the temple the 
psalms were sung by the order of singers. 

The "hours of prayer" were those in which the 
sacrifices were offered, and the incense burned, and 
whilst the priests were thus occupied, prayers were 
the business of the people, who "stood without," as 
they did at the time of the vision of Zacharias, each 
praying for himself like the pharisee and publican. 
The Jews did often at their meals each ask a blessing 
audibly for himself; and with propriety, if all prayer 
be in its nature several andpersonal, even when joined 
in by others. 

We are again told that, "In the apostolic writings 
we read of no prohibition against the use of establish- 
ed forms." True : nor are they mentioned at all, be- 
cause they had no existence. "It becomes therefore 
those, who are a form to themselves, to show their 
reasons, why they reject this custom." There was no 
such custom among either Jews or Christians till the 
period when the church was corrupted ; and this cir- 
cumstance is a good reason for rejecting forms. They, 
who were a law to themselves, were heathens; and we, 
who are a form to ourselves, aie also Icit to ^^uncovenanted 
mercy;" but are nevertheless able to show, both the 
reason of our hope, and also reasons for rejectifig writ- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 327 

ten forms of public pra3'ers. We have many special 
reasons for objecting to the forms used bolh by the 
Catholic, and Episcopal churches, which we must 
show if compelled. We have oth:r general ones ; 
we find in experience no need of them; and doubt 
their utility in pubhc w^orship; out of the abundance 
ol the heart, the mouth can speak. If ministers be 
incompelent to lead without such help, they are unfit 
for their office. Forms restrict devotion, cramp the 
desires of the heart, and by long familiarity become 
dead and insipid ; they have also an unhappy tendency 
to supersede a mental intercourse with God> and to 
render men contented with external homage. But 
above all we think, that no uninspired men have a right 
to saddle the church of Christ with a set of words and 
phrases, to which the desires, confessions, and peti- 
tions of the people, must be confined in public wor- 
ship. 

That universals cannot be deduced from particu- 
lars, is not less a rule in morals, than in reasoning ; 
but the promise of success given by the Saviour to 
the prayer of two or three, who have agreed to ask 
for some common object, though described as a spe- 
cial case, and left by him optional, is incautiously by 
the unknown writer converted into a general rule, and 
made a duty. From hence also he has inferred, that 
— "every prayer uttered extempore in the congregation, 
must be unknown to the community, till it is offered, 
and cannot therefore be considered as the joint and 
agreed piayer of the persons met together for public 
worship." It cannot be a duty in every case to agree 
previously on the object for which we are to pray; 
also it is not necessary, to the agreement implied in 
Christ's language that the very words of the prayer 
should be previously ascertained. Nor does the Sa- 
viour's language require that the agreement be even 
previous to the prayer ; if the same petitions, or even 
desires, are oflfered by different persons, his design is 
fulfilled. 



328 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS, 

To pray with the understanding is an apostolic ad- 
vice ; whence he also argues the necessity of written 
prayers, because, — "certainly no one, except the per- 
son who is the organ of the prayer, can fulfil the apos- 
tle's direction to pray with the understanding." So 
often as men take the language of Scripture in other 
than its original sense, they must mistake the truth. 
This writer uses the word "understanding" for a pre- 
vious knowledge of the Tjoords of the prayer ; but the 
apostle meant by it a knowledge of the subject matter, 
and of the propriety of asking at the time of utteri?ig the 
prayer. "How shall the unlearned say amen — seeing 
he under stafideth not what thou sayest," because pray- 
ing in an unknown tongue. It is not necessary that 
"the organ of prayer" should previously know the 
words he is to use. The most affecting, fervent, and 
best prayers, which believers ever make, are without 
previous arrangement, or preparation, except an effort 
to obtain a humble composed frame of mind. He 
who speaks, and they who hear, and join with the 
heart in such prayer, do, in the sense of the apostle, 
pray with the spirit and the understanding also. 

Because the Roman Christians were divided about 
weeks and days, the apostle prayed God to grant them 
a sameness of views, that they might unanimoushj -uiiih 
one mouth glorify God. Rom. xv. 6. This is made an 
argument for written prayers, because one mi?id aiid 
one mouth, — "could not be, if they did not use prayers 
common to all." But the apostle prayed, that God 
would give them the same views, and not a written 
form ; for he concluded, that with this gift their words 
would be sufficient. The Corinthian church having 
become discordant, the apostle advised them to speak 
the same thing, and he perfectly joined together in the same 
mind, and the same judgment, i Cor. i. 10, "which is an 
express injunction for unity of worship and unity of 
faith; the first of which is preserved by established 
prayers, known before, and agreed upon hy all; and 
the latter by a form of belief, or creed, assented to by 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 329 

agreeing Christians." When any thing is enjoined, 
whatever is necessary to such obedience is also com- 
manded; but every thing which might promote the 
end is not also enjoined. If forms may be thus justified, 
so may images, because they enliven devotion: in like 
manner, an establishment, supported by an inquisition, 
since they produce unity of faith, must be lawful. 
The creed foisted in, we suppose either to be the apos- 
tles, which no one of them ever saw; or that of 
Athanasius, made after his day, both of which are in 
the main good, though of no authority ; but how the 
rehearsal of a creed can be an act of worship, must 
be left to him to decide, who can so happily prove that 
the words of the apostle require the things. 

In "praying always with all prayer a?id supplication with 
the Spirif^ — the word rendered supplication exactly an- 
swers to the term litany; "and it has great force," in 
the words "in every thing by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving.''^ — ''In this passage we have a direction 
from the apostle to use in our public service, prayers, 
litanies and thanksgivings." What force can this wri- 
ter intend, except in support of a litany in the sense 
of the compilers of the prayer-book? Unless it be "a 
direction from the apostle" how to make the prayer 
book, these quotations are wholly irrelevant. Thus 
understood, his argument is level to the meanest capa- 
city. The apostle has inculcated, besides prayer, 
which means "that mode of addressing God, which in 
the people's name is offered up by the minister, and 
responded to, with amen, by them," also, the duty of 
supplication ; but the Greek word for "supplication^ ex- 
actly answers to litany;" therefore he has given "di- 
rection" to make a litany. The writer's pious zeal for 
his prayer book probably prevented his discerning, 
that he used the word litany in a sense not intended 
by the apostle; yet the effect is, that his argument is 
worth nothing. 

The professed design of this number was to consi- 
der, "what these forms and prayers were, in their pub- 

2d2 



330 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

lie worship;" but the total failure, both with regard to 
the Jews, and primitive Christians, is a practical proof 
of the weakness of his cause. 

When the desire of Truth, or the propriety of self- 
vindication leads the unprejudiced to investigate the 
origin of liturgies, they will be found to have arisen 
long after the days of the apostles; first in individual 
churches, and then to have obtained in larger districts, 
as a merely human contrivance professedly to exclude 
error; and afterwards to have been continued as a 
master-piece of policy to perpetuate innovations, and 
supersede the sacred text. 

Though to confess guilt, of which we are not 
conscious, to ask for blessings whereof we feel no 
need ; and to give thanks for spiritual operations, of 
which we are not the subjects, be insincerity, and there- 
fore guilt ; yet because written prayers, when ortho- 
dox are lawful means of instruction, there ought to be 
no censure for those, who use them ; but to represent 
them as an ordinance of God, is to depart from facts, 
and to censure unjustly those who reject them ; to re- 
pel such attempts is a debt we owe to truth, to the dis- 
charge of which, we desire only her evidence. 

To pi*ay is the highest privilege, and most important 
duty ; and he is the happiest who has a heart always to 
pray ; the cultivation of such a frame is the best course 
w^e can pursue in life. To the unrenewed, who never 
pray, no mode can supply their defect of disposition ; 
but the child by adoption will not be prevented from 
his delightful work; whether the public prayers be 
written, or spoken, he will make them his own, and 
advance from strength to strength, until he reaches 
that mount, where prayer gives place to praise, 



WTUIVQICAL CONSIPERATIONS. 331 



Number VII. 



The subject of the eighth number is declared to be, 
" The forms used in the church in all ages." By 
" forms" the writer must intend, in this place, modes 
of worship, of whatsoever kind ; otherwise his first 
Scriptural proofs^ have no bearing upon his subject. 
His error in styling Timothy bishop of Crete, is as in- 
nocent in effect, as it was in intention; for, not abid- 
ing at Ephesus, the youth followed his spiritual father 
into Macedonia, and never appears to have returned. 
But he ought not to have been degraded from an 
evangelist, we mean not the modern unscriptural 
sense of the term ; he had the extraordinary superin- 
tendence of the Spirit, and was subordinate only to the 
guidance of apostles. 

" I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, that 
is, litanies,"^ &c. That is, litanies? neither is the 
Greek word here litanies ; nor does the Greek word 
litany at all mean litany in the present sense of the 
w^ord ; nor consequently, can any argument thence 
arise for writing what are called litanies in prayer- 
books. " This injunction comprehends a complete 
analysis of what should constitute the precatory part 
of public worship." There is nothing of any " form 
used in the church" of Ephesus, the exhortation rather 
implies that there was none. So far from a direction 
to use a liturgy, the language shows them for what 
they are to pray ; the prayer was therefore unwritten. 
If this writer's liturgy is conformed to the parts and 
kinds of prayer here described, yet the apostle knew 
nothing of written liturgies, nor does the passage re- 
quire, or even contemplate, any such thing. 

a Col. iii. 16, 17, Iv. 2, 3. 1 Thess. ii. 11, 12. 
b 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. 



332 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

" Holdfast the form of sound wards — refers to a formu- 
lary of faith, as a creed ; or a form of prayer, as a 
liturgy. Here then is authority for the repeating of 
creeds" " Hold fast," literally have, possess, or retairu, 
is not to " repeat." The " sound wards," were not 
written, for the apostle adds, " which thou hast heard 
from me." They were to be retained, not in letters, 
but " in faith and love." The adjective " sound," means 
orthodox, excluding time and progressive action ; the 
original is the participle healing, " Sound words," 
mean a scheme of salutary doctrines, not a " form of 
prayer, as a liturgy." But the writer has not a word 
in the passage to help him to carry back a creed, a 
liturgy, and a canonical bishop to the days of the 
apostle ; they all arose long afterwards. Creeds were 
first made by individuals, then by councils. Thejori- 
mus presbyter, by increase of power, became a paro- 
chial bishop, like the Presbyterian pastor ; and after- 
wards a diocesan. Forms of prayer were introduced 
for the prevention of heresy, first in particular church- 
es ; this power the councils afterwards regulated, and 
thus rendered forms provincial. Could the construc- 
tion of this text, attempted by this writer, be estab- 
lished, and the assumption, that episcopacy, either 
parochial or diocesan, did then exist, which is contrary 
to historical verity, he would have accomplished an 
anticipation of the existence of creeds and liturgies, 
of episcopal jurisdiction, and of the monopoly of this 
right of the respective churches, several centuries ; 
all of which things fell in gradually afterwards. But 
in such construction of the text, every word of the 
apostle is taken in a sense which he did not intend. 

" In Hebrews x. 22, there is an intimation of pre- 
vious absolution, and preparatory cleansing." He 
who comes to Christ by faith finds absolution, but 
neither in this, nor in any other passage of Scripture, 
is there " an intimation of previous absolution." Sa- 
cerdotal is an infringement of God's prerogative, who 
alone can forgive sin. That the act is declarative not 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 333 

authoritative, ministerial not judicial, softens the error, 
yet may it delude an immortal soul with a false pass- 
port to heaven. Absolution prior to the twelfth cen- 
tury was matter of prayer; afterwards it assumed 
the form of a sentence passed. By " absolution and 
preparatory cleansing," may have been intended that, 
which, according to the council of Carthage, pre- 
served by Cyprian, accompanies baptism w^hen per- 
formed by ministers, not, in their view, heretical. In 
the first canon of that council we read, " It is fit that 
water be first purified and sanctified by the Spirit, 
that it may be able by its own baptism to wash away 
the sins of the man who is baptized." In the forms of 
prayer vindicated by this writer, we accordingly read, 
^' Sanctify this w^ater to the mystical washing away 
of sin." That water should wash away sin, is indeed a 
mystery, for a physical cause then produces a moral 
effect, that which is not contained in itself. That by 
washing away of sin is not meant the guilt of sin, ap- 
pears by his eleventh article, " we are accounted 
righteous before God, only for the merits of Christ;" 
it must be understood consequently of the pollution; 
but the purification of this, is expressly referred to the 
Holy Spirit in the thanks prescribed in the same forms, 
"that it hath pleased thee" the Father, " to regenerate 
this infant with thy Holy Spirit." Thus, therefore, 
we are taught, by the same /brm^, both that the water 
and the Spirit remove moral pollution ; but how, the 
writer can best show. That baptism is an absolution, 
or pardon of sin, is an old opinion ; but to gain our 
credence, better proof is required than the canon of a 
fallible council. Yet its continuance in the church, as 
if a true doctrine, ir.ay have been effected by the in- 
fluence of written forms. Such a fact argues much 
for written hturgies, with those who hold the doctrine 
of baptismal regeneration ; but it must have an oppo- 
site tendency in the view of those who reject the doc- 
trine, with as little ceremony as they do the written 
forms. 



334 LITURGICAL CONSIDERHTIONS. 

^^ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for 
another.*^ In this there is a mutual and general con- 
fession, as well as a mutual and general prayer en- 
joined." That auricular confession was unknown to 
the ancients, that public confessions were required 
only for public offences, and that private confessions 
were optional, aie points, in which it is presumed we 
have no disagreement with the writer. We may, 
nevertheless, not understand this passage in the same 
manner. The language appears to us to describe 
mutual private confessions of our weaknesses, that we 
may obtain advice, and aid each other by -joint 
prayers ; and instead of a presumption favorable to 
written, or precomposed prayers, we discern rather 
an impHcation of prayers suited to the particular trials 
of such persons. 

" I pass now to the fathers, from whom the same 
instances, which have served to prove the use of set 
forms, may be advanced as authorities for the forms 
themselves." Yet is there not a single instance of a 
written prayer produced, except the Lord's prayer. 
The singing of psalms he could easily show. We also 
use psalms and the Lord's prayer, and have no objec- 
tion to the creed ; but do not use it in worship. As 
no early example has been, or can be produced, of a 
liturgy, in the modern sense of the term ; nor a fact 
made to appear in opposition to the representation we 
have repeatedly given, of the manner of the introduc- 
tion of set forms, it is unnecessary again to pass 
through the same things. The only liturgy in this 
number, said to have existed, is that of Gregory Thau- 
maturgus, which we have seen was only a doxology, 
from which Basil in Arian times departed. The other 
testimony of Basil regarded psalmody. Now he is 
introduced saying, "When the people have confessed 
themselves unto God rising up from their prayers, they 
betake themselves to psalmody ;" which may be com- 

c James v. 16. 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 335 

pared with Basil on the thirty-seventh psalm, when 
he observes : " I do not make confession v^ith my lips 
to be seen of the world ; but inwardly in my heart, 
where no eye sees ;" whereby it will appear, that he 
must have meant secret, or at least unwritten prayers. 
His proofs, he thinks, " agree in this point, the ne- 
cessity of public, common, and unanimous, therefore, 
precomposed prayers." Thus does he concede, that 
he has so far failed of exhibiting " forms used in the 
church in all ages," that he has no otherwise proved 
" precomposed" prayers, than as such are to be in- 
ferred from the necessity of " public," " common," 
and " unanimous prayers." We suppose the prayers 
in our churches to be ''public,'^ for all hear them; 
" common^'' for every one, who chooses, makes them 
his own, using the same petitions, or mentally saying 
as he thinks fit; and ^' unanimous, ^^ for all the wor- 
shippers, in adopting the same expressions, and hav- 
ing the same ideas, have, as nearly as possible, one 
mind; yet the confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings 
may be those which occur to the speaker without 
preparation, or even a single ^'precomposed''^ sentence. 
If prayers may be thus public, common, and unani- 
mous, without being precomposed, the argument of 
the writer has failed ; and by his own representation, 
he has produced no proofs of the use of forms in the 
first ages of Christianity. 



Number VIII. 



Every man's conscience testifies, he is to account 
for himself; and thus evinces his right to choose and 
act. As those, who are allied in sentiments will in- 



336 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

cline, so they have a right, to associate for mutual 
improvement. If a single church may justify itself to 
men, on the foundation of the natural rights of its mem- 
bers, so may denominations. And so long as these 
respect the natural rights of each other, a diversity in 
doctrines, or modes of w^orship, constitutes no just 
ground of complaint. In America our natural rights are 
guaranteed by the authorised expressions of the social 
compact; and nothing is to be apprehended from 
those, v^ho hold, "That the church hath power to de- 
cree intes and ceremonies, and authority in controver- 
sies of faith." Were we to hold this, in opposition to 
the natural right of freedom from physical constraint 
and restraint, we could neither justify the reformation 
effected by our fathers, nor claim liberty of con- 
science, nor preach the gospel. Thus understood the 
ehurch is infallible, and reason an empty name. When 
the equivocal term, " the church," is interpreted as ex- 
tending to all denominations of Christians, the article, 
however defective of support, has lost its offensiveness. 
They who receive it in a peculiar sense, being ortho- 
dox to themselves, claim to be the only church of 
Christ, and can join with no others in the efforts of 
the day. Under this construction our fathers groaned ; 
to us, the claim is as innocent, as that of the man who 
thinks the world his own. 

In the ninth number of '^ Liturgical Considerations" 
in the Church Register, the respectable writer — " ana- 
lyzes the constituted forms used in the public service 
of the church of England." His view^s, on many 
points, no otherwise affect others, than as they imply 
a censure. After the '' exhortation" in the morning 
service, he introduces the " confession," affirming, 
that " it comprises all those things, which each person 
individually, and each society collectively has need to 
confess." Perhaps, nevertheless, when the pious wor- 
shipper has returned to his closet and his knees, he 
may feel the propriety of some further confessions. 
He speaks " of the blessings promised by the Saviour 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 337 

to all those who repent ;" but the " confession" itself 
more correctly represents the promises to be of God, 
" declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

The " absolution," in the first form, is the priest's 
claim of " power," and profession of compliance with 
a commandment to pronounce the penitent forgiven : 
in the second, the language is precatory, but spoken to 
the people. To each they say, " amen ;" but not as a 
prayer, because it affirms no address to Deity. The 
propriety of the " confession" is clear, but of the " ab- 
solution" problematical. If we should after the morn- 
ing prayer, which always contains a confession, 
speak, on every Sabbath, of the power given us to de- 
clare all those forgiven, who have confessed their sins ; 
either the people w^ould suppose us vain of our office ; 
or think their own confessions of great account. Since 
the heart is known to God, humility seems to require, 
that our imperfect services should be left with Him, 
under a conviction that they merit no good. But, 
" the sincere Christian having repented and confessed," 
receives " the declaration of pardon in God's name and 
words." Although neither the profession of Christi- 
anity, howsoever sincere, nor the reading or rehears- 
ing of the morning service is any certain proof of re- 
pentance ; yet does this language imply it ; and if 
herein the writer accords not with the book, which he 
explains, it is unaccountable, that a ministerial absolu- 
tion should have been made a part of the daily ser- 
vice. The Latin fathers of the middle ages considered 
oral confession, or even a groan, to amount unto re- 
pentance, " Si ingemueris sahaheris" But if evangeli- 
cal repentance be something vastly different ; and if 
many of the pious preachers, who use these forms, do 
not intend to declare an absolution of sin to every one 
who made the confession ; nor to account this repent- 
ance; why should this service continually exhibit an 
insufficient repentance, and force ministers to pro- 
nounce a forgiveness of sin, which they do not believe 
they have a right to absolve. But the book is con- 
2E 



338 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIOJTS. 

sistent with itself, for the justification supposed to be 
conferred by baptism, rests also upon a verbal profes- 
sion and promise. 

Because the " absolution" closes with the name of 
the Saviour, the writer observes ; " that there is not one 
prayer in the church service, which does not depend 
entirely for its hope of acceptance with God, upon 
the alone merits of Christ." This claim is something, 
for Christ is the way to the Father, directs us to ask in 
his name, and through him alone we have a rational 
hope. But bold assertions ought not to have been sub- 
stituted for matters of fact, against an objection so 
old. Whilst we congratulate the writer for his ortho- 
doxy in believing, " that all prayers, whatever they 
may be, and all services, should be done in the name 
of the Lord Jesus ;" we observe in the forms he would 
inculcate, in numerous places, prayers offered to the 
Mediator as such, and not to God ; and we see not how 
these are offered through the Mediator unto God, Thus, 
"O Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the 
world, have mercy on us ;" either addresses Christ as 
Mediator, or as God : on either interpretation, it is not 
a prayer to God, through Christ. If it be replied that 
Christ is God, we answer it is true ; and as such he is 
ever an object of worship in and with the Father ; but 
as Christ he is not God, but the anointed, that is com- 
missioned of God in a subordinate character. As Me- 
diator he is also our priest, through whom we approach 
the Father in our prayers, relying upon his sacrifice; 
and our prophet directing us by his word to come in 
his name. Though present with his people, it is only 
as God, his human nature has ascended and will re- 
main in heaven until he comes to judgment. If his 
soul and body were here, the human nature could not 
help us, for it could be only in one place at a time. 
But the writer observes, " The Lamh of God is set before 
our eyes of faith, and with words of fervour we sup- 
pilcate him to take away our sins. The wounded spirit 
finds comfort in communing with God in various 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 339 

prayers and supplications." But it should be remem- 
bered there is one object of worship, and no more ; 
and on this point, we are allowed no variety in our 
prayers. Jesus as a man does not hear us. "The 
Lamb of God," expresses two distinct ideas. When 
the "Lamb — is set before our eyes of faith," he is the 
ground of our acceptance with God, but the sacrifice 
is man not God : let the fervour of our wounded spirit 
be what it may, we are to worship God only; and in 
the way which he has prescribed, and in no other. 
The expressions, "Lord have mercy; " "Christ have 
mercy," so repeatedly echoed from the minister and 
the people, as to become mere sounds, were taken from 
the popish forms, not from the word of God. They 
not only destroy the solemnity of public worship but 
are theologically incorrect ; for neither may we ap- 
proach general mercy without a mediator, nor put the 
mediator as such on the throne of God ; his place is 
only on the right hand. 

The ''Gloria Patri'' is a very suitable conclusion of 
the praises, but the frequent repetition of it, in the same 
service, by the western churches, and especially those 
useless words, "as it was in the beginning, is now, and 
ever shall be," which were added long afterwards, 
seems rather intended for pomp, than devotion. 

The ''Gloria in excelsis,'^ so far as the ange?s words 
extend, is suited to particular occasions, and was sung 
at Christmas, on communion seasons, and also as a 
morning hymn. We have not found it in use before 
the fourth century. In the word of God we find no 
one praying after the manner of the residue of this 
prayer. The Lord's prayer was directed to the Father 
as God, and so the first clause of this might have been 
understood, notwithstanding the perplexing similarity 
of its terms, which scarcely admit of intelligible dis- 
crimination; but the second clause is directed solely 
to the Son ; at the close, the Third Person is distinctly 
addressed, and the writer denominates the whole "a 
joyful recognition of the blessed Trinity." We have 



340 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

no dispute with him about the doctrine of the Trinity, 
we allow each person to be God, but not each to be a 
God. They may be named in succession, as in the 
benediction ; yet are they one God, and one essence ; 
each may be named alone as comprehending deity, 
but then the other persons are not excluded. In the 
*^ Gloria in excelsis^' the Son is not worshipped merely 
as God, but as mediator. "Thou who sittest at the 
right hand of God, have mercy upon us." The Son, 
as God, is above being exalted ; it is the glorified hu- 
man nature of Christ which is placed at the right hand 
of God, which means promoted to the highest created 
dignity. Mercy comes to man through him, but it is 
from God himself, and to him should we apply for 
mercy through this glorified intercessor. . "For thou 
only art holy, thou only art the Lord," are exclusively 
addressed to "Christ." Christ is Lord, but he is so to 
the glory of God the Father, for his regal authority being 
subject to him, who put all things under him, must not 
exclude the sovereignty of the three — one God. Many 
pious believers offer up this '^Gloria ifi excelsis^^ with 
right feelings ; and God, we hope, accepts the hom- 
age ; we would not cast a straw in the way of such ; 
but truth is in order to holiness ; and when we are 
charged with sin for not joining in such worship, we 
may be permitted to show our reasons in the fear of 
God. 

The Lord's prayer is again to be spoken by all. The 
frequent repetitions of the pater noster were a commu- 
tation for the ancient severities of penance, or so 
many days of fasting, and were received from those, 
w^ho were not able to buy off their penance by alms. 
Every protestant rejects, with merited contempt, not 
only indulgences, but the more ancient discipline of 
penance. With these things in our view, and the Sa- 
viour's express prohibition of vahi repetitio?is, why 
should we repeat again and again, the same petitions, 
in the same service? At first this prayer was not used 
in public, then it was not allowed to catechumens, af- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS* 341 

Terwards it was used without restriction, and finally, 
in the seventh century, a council decreed its use on 
every day by the clergy, on pain of deposition, because 
of the petition, " give us this day our daily bread ; " 
but the word " daUy'' should be " necessary ; " the root 
of the original word having been mistaken. 

" After these," the prayer and the collect, comes the re- 
cital of the commandments by the minister, the am- 
bassador of God, from the altar, which is always in a 
situation elevated above the body of the church." 
Priesthood, altars and sacrifices were types, and 
having been fulfilled, they were taken away and the 
substance of all has passed into the heavens, conse- 
quently no authority exists under the Gospel for any 
of these things. 

The " commandments" are of the same utility, as 
when given ; to these, therefore, we have no objection. 
When read from Ebal and Gerizim, in the hearing of 
the contiguous tribes, the scene was solemn, by express 
command, and never repeated. Where are gospel 
ministers required to imitate this, and to consider 
themselves authorized to personate the great God in 
reading his law? Their embassy is peace. We 
have also some objection to the prayer-book version 
of these commandments ; " wherefore the Lord blessed 
the seventh day" is no part of the fourth command- 
ment. The Jews foisted the word " seventh" into the 
Septuagint to enforce their seventh-day worship, but 
the Hebrew, and the Samaritan texts have " sabbath" 
and not " seventh," at that critical place, where the 
change perverts the whole commandment ; the origi- 
nal design of which was to require one seventh of our 
time, and not the observance of the seventh day of the 
week. According to the prayer-book, the fourth com- 
mandment is repealed, but according to the twentieth 
chapter of Exodus, it binds the Christian to observe 
the Lord's day, as much as it did the Jews to keep the 
seventh. 

2e2 



342 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

" Last of all comes the Nicene creed, &c." We 
question neither the propriety, nor the truth of the 
creeds, if allowed our own interpretation of them; but 
deny their authority. Also we doubt the propriety of 
making them a part of the devotions of worshipping 
assemblies ; and of requiring the common people to 
say, they contain their faith. If they do not under- 
stand the expressions " God of God, Light of Light, 
very God of very God, begotten, not made," &c. how 
can they believe them? Such language w^ould lead 
the uninstructed to the idea of two Gods. When in 
the council of Nice it was objected, that the light, 
which was from the sun, was not the sun ; it was ne- 
cessary to admit, that the idea of abcision must be ex- 
cluded. 

After all, if our brethren prefer the use of such 
forms, they shall have them without our censure ; 
but justice dictates the same extension of charity to us. 
Had the unknown but pious writer made himself bet- 
ter acquainted with our exceptions against written 
forms, and with the reasons for our mode of worship, 
he would have withholden his censures, and saved us 
the painful necessity of parrying one, among the nu- 
merous attacks made upon us in the Church Register. 



Number IX. 



The tenth and eleventh numbers, under this title, 
in the Church Register, exhibit a second time the 
writer's arguments in support of the morning service. 
Neither with that service have we any concern, nor 
with those who use it, except sincerely to desire their 
edification and comfort. To their forms we have 
neither right nor disposition to object ; it is only be- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 343 

cause criminated for the neglect of them, that we 
complain ; and esteem it our duty to deny, that they 
either rest upon Scriptural authority, or primitive ex- 
ample. But on those two points, we have been, in 
these numbers, ingeniously anticipated. The order 
of the morning service is pursued, the facts are dis- 
tinctly named, a single text of Scripture is given in 
support of the general duty ; custom is then alleged, 
and names of witnesses are given, but no testimony 
is brought. The observations of the writer follow ; but 
his conclusions, being without premises, preclude all 
examination. So far as the writer depends upon his 
former representations, we offer nothing more, than 
the answers already given. With respect to his pre- 
sent positions, no issues having been tendered, no 
proofs submitted to investigation, no censures directly 
inflicted, and his main object appearing to be the pro- 
motion of piety, in which we bid him God speed, little 
is required from us, though we differ toto ccelo from 
many of his views. 



THE ABSOLUTION. 

^^ Scripture authority. 'Whosesoever sins ye remit, 
they are remitted.' St. John xx. 23. 

" Custom. That this was a practice of the primitive 
church, we learn from St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, 
St. Cyprian, and all antiquity. 

" Observation. The absolution is a declaration of 
God's pardon to sinners upon their repentance — pro- 
nounced to them by his ministers, &c." 

Peter received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 
that is, authority to open the gospel, that he might, 
after the death of Christ, first preach the glad tidings 
both to Jews and Gentiles. Thus he observed, (Acts 
XV. 7,) that " a good while ago,^^ at the conversion of 
CorneUus, " God made choice among us, that the Gen- 
tiles, hy my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel, 



844 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

and believe." The authority of his doctrine is also 
mentioned, "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth? 
shall be bound in heaven, and v^hatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." The same 
language he afterwards used to all the apostles. The 
terms binding and loosing were adopted by the Jews 
for pronouncing things forbidden or lawful, as has 
been often shown ; accordingly, both in Matthew xvi. 
19, and xviii. 18, the neuter is used, because doctrines, 
not men, were introduced. Or, if in the latter, disci- 
pline be meant, it comes to the same thing, for if the 
apostle in the exercise of it produced either true re- 
pentance, or the opposite effect, the moral character, 
and consequently the real state of the party would be 
discovered. 

In like manner the words in John xx. 23, " whoseso- 
ever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and 
whosesoever sins ye retain, are retained," are to be 
understood. For when they received the inspiration 
of suggestion, what they thus uttered from him, whe- 
ther doctrinally or judicially, was the word of God. 

In respect to custom, we allege, that remission is 
strictly of guilt, that is, of obligation to punishment ; 
this is, to treat a sinner as if he were righteous, or to 
justify, in the sense of the Scriptures, which is the act 
of God only. Absolution by apostles was not the ex- 
ercise of " power," but the revelation either of doc- 
trinal truths, or of a sentence of God discovered to 
them. That any man, since their deaths, has possessed 
this inspiration of suggestion, we ought not to believe 
till it is proved. That the early Christians had no idea 
of the forgiveness of sins by any mere man, is evinced 
by the frequent use made by the writers of the first 
centuries, of the fact of Christ's having forgiven sin, 
to prove his divinity. 

To the observation of the writer we can, in this in- 
stance, have no objection; for, omitting the word 
power, he has rendered the absolution a mere " decla- 
ration." A power in ministers to forgive sins is the 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 345 

obvious sense of the words in the service, but as this 
is not the view of the writer, we are free from impu- 
tation for not adopting it. 



THE SHORT PRAYERS OR RESPONSES. 

*' Scripture authority. ' Continue in prayer,' (or ac- 
company one another without ceasing in prayer.) 
Colossians iv. 2." 

For " continue in prayer and watch in the same," he 
substitutes " accompany one another without ceasing 
in prayer," rightly omitting the a?idf and restoring the 
participle; nor do we complain of the changing of 
the places of the verb and participle ; but the sense of 
the word translated " watching,^'' is not " accompany 
one another." This mistake is unaccountable, unless 
the Greek word for watching, being almost the same 
with the Latin for afock, they have been inadvertently 
confounded. The Greek is, " continue in prayer 
watching in it;" or, persevere in prayer, keeping your 
attention awake in it. The word for prayer is also 
used for a place of prayer, but not in this passage, be- 
cause it is joined zdth thanksgiving. 

Of the thundering amen, and alternate praises, 
enough has been shown ; other responses were adopt- 
ed afterwards, probably because of the ignorance of 
the darker ages ; but that they are duty, and necessary 
to public prayer, cannot be shown. Prayer is a speak- 
ing to God, and consequently excludes, so far as w^e 
are occupied in it, conversation with each other. 



'HE CREED. 



" Scnpture authoiity. ' Hold fast the form of sound 
words.' (2 Tim. i. 13.) 

" Custom. Tertulhan affirms the use of creeds in all 
churches. 



346 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

" Observation. No wonder then that the apostolic in- 
junction should have been adopted in all the churches/ 

That Paul refers Timothy to any thing written* 
either for him, or the church at Ephesus, by the ex- 
pressions " hold fast the form of sound words,'^ we have 
shown to be excluded by the original terms, and also 
by the circumstance, that such truth was to be retained 
<' in faith and love." Thus one of the premises being 
removed, the conclusion is without support. 

When the first churches were planted, they remain- 
ed under the occasional instructions of the extraordi- 
nary teachers, till persons were found qualified in 
point of knowledge to teach, and of prudence to gov- 
ern the society. If division arose, they were kept 
without officers longer, as at Corinth and Rome. 
The persecution at Ephesus rendered presbyters neces- 
sary soon after the departure of Paul. Every fur- 
nished church aimed to continue the same doctrines 
which they had received from the apostles and evan- 
gehsts, and they afterwards appealed to each other, 
as witnesses of those truths, against heretical innova- 
tions ; but had there existed a common creed, it would 
not have been concealed by the early writers. The 
letters of the apostles succeeded to the high authority 
of the writers, and were to the churches better than 
creeds. Their utility against heresies we admit, and 
have shown their inception ; but hesitate upon the 
propriety of a public recital of them in worship, for 
reasons assigned in a former number. 



LET us PRAY. 

" Scripture authority, * Exhorting one another.' (Heb. 
X. 25.) 

" Custom. The deacon in ancient services was wont 
to call upon the people often, ' Let us pray vehemently ^^ 
* nay, still more vehemently.'' " 

The propriety of a notice to pray, requires no proof, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 347 

especially in the view of those whose prayers are 
written. * Let us pray vehemently,^ nevertheless, forms 
some contrast with such expressions as "keep thy foot, 
when thou goest into the sanctuary ;" " let thy words 
be few ;" " Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." When 
prayers become a task, and repetitions are made a 
penance, devotion has ceased. Importunity should 
be the offspring of humility, and uttered with reve- 
rence and godly fear ; prayer is not the labor of the 
lips, but the breathing of a holy soul. 

" The prayer for the President and all in authority,''^ ac- 
cords with the duty of every one, but the duty extends 
not to the writing and reading of such prayer ; yet a 
printed form might be a protection to the characters of 
some, and a check to the political propensities of 
other ministers. Nor is this the only instance in 
which forms might prove a relief, for the extempore 
mode is liable to numerous abuses. Some prayers 
are grossly adulatory, others give vent to private re- 
sentments ; some are almost wholly doctrinal, others 
equally catch at the praises of men by their style or 
manner ; some exhibit the speaker, with a few like 
himself, saints of the highest order, possessed of full 
assurance, praying for the sinners among the audience, 
who, of course, are not to join in the prayer ; whilst 
others repeat, like schoolboys, moral sentiments, pain- 
fully charged upon their memories; some describe 
Deity as rigorously just, without mercy, and others 
appeal to general mercy only, giving encouragement 
even to the impenitent. That such abuses obtain, 
ought not to be concealed ; they furnish, nevertheless, 
no reason for our rejection of the original mode of 
public prayer ; but if any, for the prevention of such 
evils, resort to written forms, we are more culpable, 
if it be a fault to use them, than they. 

But prayers written with care, and revised, may 
still be imperfect ; thus the words, " We beseech thee, 
that we, with all those that have departed in the 
true faith, may have our perfect communion," &c. in 



348 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

the excellent burial service, are manifestly a prayer 
for the dead, but contrary to the intentions of those 
who use it. — " Who has knit together thine elect in 
one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body 
of thy Son," &c. including all the glorified saints, 
might not escape the censure of being too doctrinal, 
if spoken by a Presbyterian. — "Bless and sanctify 
with thy word and Holy Spirit these thy gifts and 
creatures of bread and wine" — " Sanctify this water 
to the mystical washing away of sin" — " Who hast 
vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants by water 
and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them for- 
giveness of all their sins" — are petitions which we 
cannot understand or cannot receive, and in which, 
for these reasons, if there were no others, we ought 
not to unite. Nor could we pray for the " manifold 
gifts of the apostles, and grace to use them," because 
the gifts have ceased ; and if we had them, they might 
prove temptations. 

If our prayers are at best imperfect, and if all the 
modes be subject to abuse, and the reasons for and 
against forms be numerous and various, it is probably 
best, that there should exist churches, differing in their 
modes of worship, equally without censure: but, es- 
pecially, those who follow form.s, have no right to 
justify themselves upon the grounds assumed hy this write?'. 
The experiment has evinced a total defect of proof, 
that his liturgy is founded either on commandment, or 
primitive practice ; an event which might have been 
foreseen ; for others, with higher adv^antages, have 
also failed in the attempt to establish the same things. 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 349 



Number X. 



Whilst the pious writer under this title, in the 
Church Register, as well as eyery other member of the 
respectable denomination to which he belongs, possess- 
es the unquestionable right of worshipping in the forms 
which please themselves, this right should be exercised 
with justice to others. We make no complaint be- 
cause they believe in the divine authority and antiquity 
of their ritual. But when they publicly assert their 
forms to have been founded upon the command of 
God himself, and supported by the examples of Christ, 
the apostles, and first churches; and charge us with 
guilt, who reject them; the matter of fact, that no 
such precept and examples have existed, is our de- 
fence, and justice prompts to deny the charge. 

In the morning service "the next form of prayer to 
be considered, is the litany, or general suppHcation." 
The proofs marshalled establish, what no one doubts, 
the propriety of general supplications. Also that the 
Greek word litany means supplication, is admitted. 
But "the litany" to be supported, is d, particular collec- 
tion of praijers distinguished by that name. Yet neither 
is a word of evidence brought for preconceived forms, 
nor an example given of a dialogue of prayers, like 
this, in sixty-three petitions and answers. But, instead 
of a justification of its subject matter, the writer has 
given a panegyric on this portion of the service. 
"The litany begins with an earnest, and solemn invo- 
cation of each person separately for mercy." Here 
are three addresses to the divine persons, as to three 
distinct beings ubiquitary, omniscient and able to show 
mercy. The Scriptures exhibit one divine being, one 
object of worship, not tritheism ; a plurality indeed in 
deity of some kind, which we Gd.][ personalis essential 
to the scheme of redemption. But this litany contains 

2F 



350 LITURGICAL COXSTDERATIOXS. 

three supplications to three distinct beings, and is the 
worship of three Gods separately. The following sup- 
plication to the "trinity," a woVd never to be used in 
worship, because not in the Scriptures, will not remove 
the objection. This word, taken to mean three and 
one in different respects, although it be not its natural 
force, is the best we can frame. But we are not able 
to discern, why the very same petition for mercy 
should be first offered to each person individually, and 
then to the ^nrinitif' as such, unless it be under the per- 
suasion, that there are three beings, who think and act 
sometimes severally and sometimes conjunctly. VVe 
are taught to pray to the Father as God, asking for 
the sake of Christ, under the sanctifying influences of 
the Spirit ; we know of no other way prescribed in 
the sacred word. The residue of the litany, about 
five-sixths of the whole, is directed to the Mediator 
and Son, and is consequently a plain departure from 
His own direction to ask the Father in His name. 
Stephen and Ananias had visions of Christ, and ad- 
dressed him. The worship of Christ by the church in 
heaven and on earth, w^as also a vision. Doxologies 
and benedictions naming the persons together as one 
God and thus calling upon the name of Jesus are obvi- 
ously proper. The addresses of Polycarp in his letter, 
and at the stake, were also to one God, though the 
Father and Son are named. The letter of the church 
of Smyrna speaks of him as an object of worship, 
being the So?i of God. Justin Martyr told the Emperor 
in behalf of the Christians, "we worship God alone." — 
That the orthodox Christians, before the Arian heresy 
every where held the divinity of the Son, and called 
upon his name with the Father is undeniably true. But 
that they offered distinct petitions and prayers to the 
tVIediator, we have never found. Praises for the work 
of each in redemption are not liable to the same objec- 
tions ; yet those of which Pliny speaks, could not be 
justified, if they were directed to the man Jesus "as 
God" to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit : 



LITURGICAL COXSIDERATIOx\S. 351 

but that testimony was evidently mere hearsay, and 
furnished by one wholly ignorant of Christianity. 

This is "a recognition of the blessed Trinity." 
True ; but though our belief and our worship be inse- 
parable, we ought not by using unscriptural forms and 
language in our public worship, to place stumbling 
blocks in the way of the weak. Such a htany instead 
of prev^enting, may produce unitarianism. 

It carefully recognises also three orders, bishops, 
priests, and deacons; but of priests as officers in 
Christ's church, distinct from bishops, no one ever read 
a word in the JNew 'J'estament. Considered as a hu- 
man institution, we ought to be convinced, that it was 
rightfully introduced, before we venture to offer it in 
prayer to Him who claims the prerogative of legislat- 
ing for his own church. 

Next is introduced the "prayer or collect taken from 
the liturgy of Saint Chrysostom, and is therefore very 
ancient." This prayer appearing in the morning and 
evening service, and in the Jitany must be a favorite. 
This writer, known during his life by the name of John, 
whose dignity was according to that of the city of 
Constantinople, being their bishop, was born in the 
fourth and died in the fifth century, and long after his 
banishment and death was canonized, an honor if such 
it be, withholden from many whom God had inspired. 
As the denomination do not acknowledge this power 
in the Pope, we know not why it should be so often 
admitted in the saintships of the prayer-book ; and are 
sorry to perceive this contagion spreading among our 
own, caught from the English Testament ; we shall 
better know who have been saints, when the sentence 
of the final judge shall decide the question. We find 
days assigned to St. James, St. Peter and others ; and 
also to "St. Michael and all angels," except we presume 
those who have fallen. But why angels should be 
called saints, and since we protestants neither worship 
them, nor ask their help, why they should continue to 
have a place among our devotions, are things to us 



352 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

not very clear. As we neither worship Chrysostom, 
nor acknowledge his authority, especially in praying 
for the dead ; nor esteem a prayer the more, because 
made by him, and no better than others, there seems 
to be no reason for honoring him with the name of a 
golden mouth in a protestant prayer-book. A "collect 
taken from the hturgy of Chrysostom?" There is no 
liturgy of Chrysostom; that which bears his name was 
not his. On this very account the learned Bingham 
went through the tomes of Chrysostom in search of 
vestiges of a liturgy. He found the Lord's prayer, 
the evangehcal hymn, the words of institution of- the 
two sacraments, the salutation and the benediction. 
He has turned the exhortations of the deacons into 
what he calls bidding prayers; but they are not prayers, 
for they are spoken to the worshippers, not addressed 
to Deity, who is spoken of in the third person. His 
proofs taken in their connexions respectively, from the 
Greek homilies of Chrysostom, establish not the use of 
a hturgy at Constantinople at that period. But if they 
had gone so far, that fact at so late a period would not 
have furnished the least authority for a precomposed 
liturgy. 

The unknown writer next presents to us the canoni- 
cal year, commencing with "the advent," and with de- 
votional pathos describes the progress of his ritual in 
the nativity, circumcision, epiphany, lent, good Friday, 
Easter, ascension, and whitsuntide: thus making the 
whole year a succession of anniversaries of the events 
of gospel history. Though it was a happy substitution 
for pagan observances, the occasion has long ceased, 
and of these numerous feasts, fasts, and holy days, the 
posing question now occurs, "who hath required these 
at our hands?" Certainly God hath not, and no other 
hath a right. But self defence is our only aim, we wil- 
lingly leave others to their own convictions. 

The doctrine of the Lord's supper as explained in 
the twenty-eighth article, as well as in our Confession 
and catechism, follows too nearly Calvin's trimming 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 353 

unintelligible scheme of eating and drinking spiritually. 
In the edition in the time of Edward the sixth, it is 
rightly expressed ; that^ " the body of Christ cannot be 
present at one time, in many and divers places." The 
bread and wine remain unaltered by prayer, and can 
never produce any new physical effect, nor operate as a 
charm; they may become signs and seals. The article 
rightly affirms, that, " the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper w^as not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried 
about, lifted up and worshipped." But the commu- 
nion service, though it does not affirm a change of the 
substance of the bread and wine, yet contains a con- 
secration of them, by which they are blessed and 
sanctified in such a sense, that if more bread and 
wine be necessary, the consecration must be repeated, 
and if there be a surplus, the "minister shall return to 
the Lord's table, and 7-e-cerejitly place upon it what re- 
maineth of the consecrated elements, covering the 
same with a fair linen cloth ;" and " it shall hot be car- 
ried out of the church, but the minister and other 
communicants shall immediately after the blessing, 
reverently eat and drink the same." These things were 
probably designed to prevent superstition, yet seem 
to imply some effect wrought upon the elements, 
which is wholly incomprehensible. 

He argues for commencing the communion with 
the Lord's prayer from '' the propriety of engaging" 
God^s favor wdth this prayer, which his owm beloved 
Son gave us as a never failing spring of grace and 
help. Where such views exist, the frequent repeti» 
tion of that prayer is as excusable, as if it were be- 
lieved, that the repetition of it a number of times 
merits the greatest blessings. This is to waive the 
necessity of faith, and of that grace, which produces 
it; and to treat the perfect, and therefore immutable 
God, as a subject of motives. That Christ gave that 
prayer, " as a never failing spring of grace and help," 
is neither fact nor sound doctrine. That the commu- 
nion service, at an early period, should commence 
2r2 



354 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

with that prayer is very natural ; for public "worship 
began with reading the scriptures; next followed a 
homily, exhortation, or discourse ; the deacons then 
dictated petitions to the catechumens and penitents, 
and immediately after imposition of hands on the peni- 
tents excluded them, because deemed unfit to say, 
"Our father," &c. Silent devotions succeeded, followed 
by a public prayer ; in which the Lord's prayer, being 
generally known, would first occur, as the privilege 
of those present, then followed the communion. The 
nineteenth canon of the provincial council of Laodicea 
may be taken as the course of worship, in use at 
least in Asia Minor, after Justyn Martyr, and prior to 
the council of Nice; but it neither mentions a public 
liturgy, nor affords a proof of written forms. 



Number XL 



Several things in the fourteenth number of this title 
in the Church Register, appear exceptionable, but our 
object is neither censure nor criticism, but merely de- 
fence of truth. When the writer asks, " May we not 
then justly admire such arrangement, and be encou- 
raged with the fact, that we worship the Lord in the 
beauty of holiness ?" the use of the liturgy in public 
worship, seems to be identified with the beauty of holi- 
ness: yet the 110th Psalm was not prophetic of pre- 
conceived forms, but of the spiritual worship of gos- 
pel times. 

*' May we not then say of the church service that 
it is at unity with itself?" As the service here spoken 
of belongs to "the church," there is no other. This 
exclusive claim unchurches every other denomination ; 
and those who make it, are at unity with themselves, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 355 

when they refuse every evangeUcal coalition and 
act, correspondent unto every effort of the day. some- 
thing of a kindred nature, that the church may retain 
its integrity without danger of commixtures ; but for 
what ulterior purpose, we are unable to discover. If 
all others be out of covenant, it is strange that any 
thing good should originate with them, and be found 
worthy of imitation. The last number of the Church 
Register admits this representation, by pubUshing as 
true, though from a Presbyterian, " that the evangeli- 
cal party" in England, " are more rigid in their pecu- 
liar notions of church government, and more disposed 
to talk of Episcopalians as the church than the anti- 
evangelical." Of this matter we profess to know 
nothing, except that whilst the Philadelphia Recorder 
has treated us as fellow Christians, the Church Regis- 
ter has, from its commencement, in alternate strains 
of transatlantic superciliousness, and querulousness 
against evangelical men and measures, spoken against 
Presbyterians and " evangelical" Episcopalians, in 
terms which cannot fail to rouse to self-defence. Thus, 
without ceremony, in one of his last numbers, he cha- 
racterises " Presbyterianism" by what he represents it 
to be " in Canada ;" where there are those " who neg- 
lect baptism, rather than have that rite performed by 
an Enghshman in holy orders." " Presbyterianism in 
Canada" still groans under the intolerance of " the 
church," whilst conscience, as in every former age, 
refuses to yield to compulsion. " Presbyterianism" 
every where admits the validity of Episcopal baptism; 
but no where approves the papal appendages attached 
to it in the prayer-book. Suppose a bigoted Cana- 
dian, present in Philadelphia, should answer the editor 
by alleging, that he had heard his pastor in Scotland 
say, that to require sponsors to affirm in the name of 
the child, that it believes and promises, when it is 
physically incapable of both ; to consecrate the wa- 
ter ; to mark the forehead with it transversely as a 
cross ; and to have a bishop to finish by confirmation, 
assuming the apostolic extraordinary power of the 



3'56 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

gift of the Spirit, what the presbyter had begun by re- 
moving sin by baptism, are all human inventions, and 
on that account to be rejected ; what would the editor, 
who is "in holy orders," reply? The justice of the 
imputation cast upon the Canadian, must depend upon 
the truth and weight of his answers. 

No doubt he would say, that so long ago as the be- 
ginning of the fifth century, the bishop of Hippo al- 
leged in defence of this practice " that sacraments 
would not be such, if they bore not the similitude of 
the things of which they are sacraments" — " as the 
sacrament of the body of Christ is in some manner his 
body, so the sacrament of faith is faith, therefore to 
answer that an infant believes, who is incapable of 
believing, is to answer that he has faith, because he 
receives the sacrament of faith." But the false an- 
swer must be given before the child is baptized, for it 
constitutes, by its terms, the condition upon which the 
child receives baptism ; otherwise, if nothing but the 
effect of baptism is meant according to Augustine, the 
question is useless and absurd. But the right of in- 
fants to baptism, whose parents are in covenant, de- 
pends neither upon stipulations in behalf of the infant, 
nor upon the faith either of the parent or child, or 
even of the administrator of the ordinance, but upon 
the will of God ; for in the Old Testament he has ex- 
pressly given them the right, which has never been 
taken away ; and in the New, has pronounced them 
holy or set apart to himself, in cases where they would 
have been excluded by the customs of the Jews. 

The editor might also say to the second objection, 
that the consecration of the water by prayer, the 
Holy Spirit being supposed to descend from heaven 
upon it, may be found to have been believed at the 
commencement of the third century. Afterwards in 
the consecration, the water was sapiently marked 
with the sign of the cross ; and in the days of Augus- 
tine, the blood of Christ was supposed present with 
the water, as in the eucharist. 

With respect to the sign of the cross, he might re- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 357 

ply, that in early days, the persecuted Christians sig- 
nified their profession to each other by secretly cross- 
ing themselves. That this had been added to baptism 
before the middle of the third century, is shown by 
Cyprian ; and that it was in constant use afterwards, 
by Augustine, Jerom, and others. 

With respect to confirmation, he could say, that at 
the commencement of the third ce'ntury, when a per- 
son was baptized, unction, imposition of the hands of 
the presbyter, with prayer for the Spirit, im^mediately 
followed. But when the presiding presbyter had ob- 
tained a canonical ordination, a monopoly of the title 
of bishop, and a control in almost every thing, he also 
assumed the right of imposition of hands and chrysm, 
with prayer for the Spirit, confirming the baptisms of 
the presbyters. Thus Jerom speaks of the custom of the 
bishop's imposing his hands, and of invoking the Holy 
Spirit upon those, whom presbyters and deacons had 
baptized. Also, that it was decreed by a council, that 
infants were not to be confirmed, except by the bishop, 
or by his direction. Baptism being thus severed from 
the anointing, or in the Latin church, imposition of 
hands denominated confirmation, each was by a coun- 
cil of Carthage termed a sacrament or mystery. It 
was not, however, till the eighth or ninth century, that 
confirmation was withholden from infants as soon as 
baptized. And that on these grounds, at present, con- 
firmation is a distinct rite, peculiar to the canonical 
bishop. 

To all these things, the despised Canadian Presby- 
terian might rejoin, that they arose since the apostles' 
days, and were human contrivances. — That confirma- 
tion, so far as an aping the extraordinary powers of 
the apostles, was absurd, and that the church had 
neither power to decree a canonical ordination, nor 
to introduce a new sacrament. 

Why should " Presbyterianism in Canada" be held 
up to censure for that self-preference, which is a dis- 
tinguishing characteristic of " the church" in Phila- 



358 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

delphia? The hardy peasant of the north had the 
same right still to " love the church of Scotland," and 
to " carry his children forty miles over the snow" for 
baptism, as the editor of the Church Register had to 
lumber the mails in every direction wdth his preference 
of " the church service above all others." Such pre- 
dilections for either of these denominations are of no 
importance, except as they may, by affecting the con- 
science, become injurious. The only probable mean 
of removing them is the calm investigation of the truth 
which ought to and will prevail, when the names and 
distinctions about w^hich the potsherds of the earth are 
striving, shall have drooped into merited and eternal 
oblivion. 



Number XIL 



Another translatlantic writer is introduced by the 
Church Register, in support of the same cause, to 
whom, because of his dignity, we seem bound to pay 
our respects. He asks, "with what feelings of confi- 
dence can a congregation have recourse to prayer, 
which has been accustomed to hear, that a decree has 
already, before the foundation of the world, gone out 
from God, by which the final destiny of every man is 
irrevocably doomed, and indeed that such is the ne- 
cessary consequence of the undeniable foreknowledge 
of Deity?" "The real conclusion, and the practical 
evil of the doctrine of the election meet together." 
These sentiments, being not more an imputation on 
those, who teach according to the Westminster Con- 
fession, than those who have adopted the articles con- 
tained in the prayer-book impose no necessity of self- 
vindication upon us, that does not equally fall upon the 



LiTURaiCAL COiVSTDERATIONS. 359 

orthodox of his own church; nevertheless their con- 
nexion \vith that which follows them precludes our to- 
tal silence. 

If the object of worship does not know future things 
and actions, he must be growing wiser progressively, 
is consequently imperfect, and, by the voice of reason 
and revelation, not God. But if perfect, his know- 
ledge, which must be therefore perfect, is also in other 
respects wholly unlike that of his creatures. Our 
ideas originate from things, and imply their previous 
existence ; but things all spring from the great first 
cause, and are the effects of his power accomplishing 
his previous purposes; the divine knowledge thus wholly 
differs from human, ours consisting of the pictures of 
things, whilst things are the images of his knowledge, 
and nature, grace and glory constitute a stupendous 
scheme present in all its parts to the divine mind in 
his eternal purposes. The decrees of God are not 
acts, but such purposes, and immutable hke himself, 
because founded in wisdom which is perfect. 

But it is complained that thus ^Hhe final destiny of 
every man is doomed.'''' Infinite knowledge sees the end 
from the beginning, and it sees also every mean that 
conduces to the end. With respect to men, it discerns 
all the iniquity, which is to bring the final doom or con- 
demnation up'on the impenitent. When this shall be 
revealed to all at the judgment, every rational crea- 
ture will see and approve ; and if it shall be then 
right to condemn the reprobate, it could not have been 
wrong to have purposed from eternity to do that, 
which shall then be seen to have been just. 

That the eloquent bishop, from whom the excerpt is 
taken, should pronounce "ifAe doctrine of election'^ — "a 
practical evil,^^ whilst the seventeenth article of his 
church declares it to be "full of sweet, pleasant and 
unspeakable comfort," is somewhat strange. The 
framers of the articles saw no relief for the guilty, 
but in the sovereignty of God ; whilst the prelate has 
either a higher opinion of human rectitude, or ima- 



360 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

gines the moral governor less scrupulous of his honor. 
But that God has given laws, and appointed a judg- 
ment ; that he will sustain the honor of his rectitude, 
neither making any to account for what they did not 
receive, nor punishing any but for their sins ; and that 
every man possessed of the ordinary natural faculties 
of a man, is conscious of a freedom from constraint 
and restraint, are indisputable facts. But if the govern- 
ment he has erected be perfect, and the contrary is an 
unworthy supposition, there can be no reason for the 
pardon of sin to prevent a failure of justice; accordingly 
what is so called is really a justification, for which 
provision has been secured by the Sovereign of the 
Universe in the original constitution, that is, in the 
eternal purposes, on which the government is founded. 
Why then should the bishop of Winchester take away 
our only hope? In other words, why should he con- 
ceal the sovercig7ity of God, in w^hich high but rightful 
character only he could have purposed the erection of 
his moral government, the scheme of redemption, and 
the salvation of fallen men, and upon what terms 
he pleases. On him as sovereign there can be no 
claims, for he is wholly independent, yet in this char- 
acter alone can w^e approach him in the attitude of 
prayer ; whilst we know that in his gifts of grace and 
glory, as well as in those of his providence, he may 
do with his own as he pleases ; and have his word that 
when wo are fit to receive, he is ready to give, for 
that every one w^ho asketh receiveth. The seventeenth 
article must have been w^ritten under a full view of 
such truths. 

But if a decree has gone forth before, there can he 7io C07> 
jidence in prayer. There would be no just ground of 
confidence, if there existed no connexion between 
means and end; if all was uncertain; if an imperfect 
and mutable being guided the universe, liable to be 
swerved by a thousand petitions hourly addressed to 
him, ready to subject the dictates of wisdom and the 
demands of justice to the importunities of the selfish, 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 361 

and ever disposed to surrender the public good to pri- 
vate advantage. The decrees of God are not reveal- 
ed to us, and can be no rule of our conduct, either in 
matter of providence or grace. If we pray in faith, 
he has thereby given us a pledge ; but if we have not 
faith, our duty to confide is not the less, because suc- 
cess is not promised. The purposes of God include 
the means as well as the end, consequently either is as 
sure as the other. The same objection lies with re- 
spect to the gifts of providence ; in ploughing and 
sowing and every other work the success ever depends 
upon him, without whom a sparrow descends not to 
the ground. If the confidence, which is destroyed by 
the idea of a perfect government, consists in a depen- 
dence upon the excellence of our prayers, the purity 
of our desires, or the merit of our services, it is best 
that it should be destroyed. That confidence of a 
worshipper, w^hich is taken away by a belief in the 
immutability of the divine purposes, which are always 
right, is a false hope resting upon some imaginary 
previous failure on the part of the divine vigilance or 
purity. It is an astonishing fact, that Dr. Sumner pre- 
fers to worship a God, whom he can change by his 
prayers ; yet such change must be either for the bet- 
ter or the worse ; if for the better, he chooses to wor- 
ship an imperfect God ; if for the worse, we dread to 
speak the consequences. There is no other alterna- 
tive, for a change, neither for the better nor the worse, 
would argue defect of wisdom. This view of prayer 
we should not expect from a bishop of Winchester. 
Protestants address one who knows them altogether, 
their ways, and thoughts, and destinies. We do not 
pray to inform our Maker of that which he knew not ; 
nor wish to change him, who is perfectly wise, and 
always does what is best. We desire to fall in with 
his purposes, submit to his will, acknowledge his gov- 
ernment, and bring our hearts into unison with the 
dispensations of his providence and grace. To ex- 
pect to reveal to omniscience, what he knows not; to 
2G 



362 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

desire to change purposes, which are the wisest and the 
best, and therefore immutable; and to conceive of the 
eternal Sovereign, as if he were a frail mortal are 
mental exercises the reverse of moral purity as well 
as correct theology; and have a direct tendency to 
destroy, rather than to establish confidence in Chris" 
tian devotions. 

It is also the opinion of this bishop of bishops, that 
a congregation should Jiot customarily hear of decrees. 
But if God possesses perfect wisdom, and all his ac- 
tions accord with purposes of such character; if his 
power effectuates his designs and he always sees the 
end from the beginning; if every prophecy is a reve- 
lation of his purpose, of his foreknowledge, and of the 
consequent certainty of the accomplishment, there can 
be no reason for the concealment of such perfections. 
Yet if these be erroneous representations, and if there 
be neither purpose, knowledge, power, nor other per- 
fection ; nor any certainty, then ought they neither to 
be heard nor uttered. It would then also follow, that 
there is no God, and that atheism, being truth, should 
become the order of the day. Such tremendous con- 
clusions neither can Dr. Sumner, nor the editor escape. 
They suppose Presbyterians to believe, that God has 
arbitrarily and irreversibly determined, that men shall 
or shall not be saved without any respect to their faith 
or obedience ; but we abhor such a doctrine as much 
as they can; and hold that whenever a man has been 
elected to salvation, such salvation can only be attain- 
ed in a way of holiness; and that when a man is ap- 
pointed to destruction, he cannot be lost, but by his 
sins. Even Christ's exaltation, which they will ac- 
knowledge was absolutely decreed, could not have ob- 
tained, unless he had performed the terms upon which 
it was suspended. The assistance, which his human 
nature received from the divine, does not alter the 
case; because it was but a mean, and also decreed 
In a similar manner an absolute purpose, called a de- 
cree of election to glory, may comprehend at the same 
time events depending on voluntary agency, and those 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 363 

spiritual aids, which shall secure the repentance, faith, 
and holiness, without which the party could not be 
saved. When these duties are not performed the 
party may blame himself, and justly perish in his sins; 
there being in him no defect of power, but only of dis- 
position, spiritual aid denominated grace would be a 
mere gift not debt, an act of sovereignty not justice, 
since the party was not forced to sin. Though it is 
thus undeniable, that eve?itsmay be absolutely decreed, and 
be therefore certain, which depend on the iiiter^cening conduct 
of moral agents, who are free; yet is there a portion of 
our fellow Christians, w4io would limit the perfections 
of God himself, rather than admit, that predestination 
and election, though implying no more than the cer- 
tainty of divine purposes, can be reconciled with the pos- 
session of the liberty necessary to moral agency. 

That the most precious doctrines may be abused 
and thus become practical evils, and that this of elec- 
tion has been often perverted to the hardening of re- 
probate minds, is matter of lamentation. But instead 
of denying the perfections of God, and his rightful 
sovereignty we ought to discriminate between this and 
his rectoral government; and while w^e point out with 
clearness, the natural powers and liberty w^e possess 
as moral agents, and for the right use of w^hich we 
are, and ought to account, it becomes us to acknowledge 
our guilty alienation, and aversation of heart, w^hich 
some call a moral inability, and our need of these 
sanctifying influences, w^ithout w^hich we shall go on in 
sin, and fall under the deserved sentence of final con- 
demnation. But as often as men can be brought to 
pray for such aid with the heart, and right views, they 
are the subjects of the grace they ask. 

As God is perfect, he can have no accession of 
knowledge, or change of purposes; what he does, he 
does, for ever; nor can he be at a loss to accomplish 
his designs, for all things are his, and under his direc- 
tion, and every heart at his disposal. Nothing there- 
fore can be more unreasonable, than to suppose, 
that the infallible certainty of an event excludes the 



364 , LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

very means which are appointed by God himself to 
render such event finally sure. 

All good, and all evil that is physical, are from God; 
but moral evil is a negative idea, and requires no pos- 
sitive cause. To bestow good imphes a purpose, and 
the Scriptures call it when the good is future an elec- 
tion. As a mean of saving a guilty world redemp- 
tion has been provided, and is offered to all even the 
worst. If any were hindered and repelled, the positive 
refusal might be ground of complaint. If non-elec- 
tion be a decree, it is a decree not to decree, which is a 
negative idea, and not an act : nor is the permission of 
sin a decree, for to permit is not to hinder, and a miere 
negation. No excluding decrees exist, nor are they 
implied in election. The purpose to punish those, who 
deserve to suffer for their sins, is as just as to do the 
thing, when the trial has been passed. This is all the 
reprobation we hold; and these truths, we think, ought 
to be heard by every congregatio?i, and if they become 
practical evils, upon them rests the blame, who abuse 
them. 



Number XIII. 

Babtismal regeneration is the subject, presented by 
the excerpts in the Church Register, for our present 
reflections. 

Thdse apostolic addresses, in which whole churches 
are denominated members of Christ, buried zcith him in 
baptism, the spiritual circumcision, and temples of the Holy 
Ghost, are alleged by Dr. Sumner to have been 
" founded on the principle that the disciples had been 
brought, by their dedication to God in baptism, into a 
state of reconcilement with him, had been admitted to 
privileges which the gospel calls on them to improve. 
On the authority of the example, and of the undeniable 
practice of the first ages of Christianity, our church 
considers baptism as conveying regeneration." And af- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 365 

terwards he observes, that " the preacher of special 
grace must, consistently with his own principles, lead 
his hearers to look for some new conversion, and expect 
some sensible regeneration. This brings him to use 
language in the highest degree perplexing to an ordina- 
ry hearer." 

The members of the churches thus addressed, had 
certainly been baptized, and having, by that rite, been 
received into visible communion, there was a pre- 
sumption, that their professions, which had been deem^ 
ed credible, were true. It was, therefore, of course, 
for the apostle to treat them as saints. That their 
dedication in baptism was prima facie evidence of their 
being in a state of reconcilement, may be admitted ; but 
that such reconcilement was the effect of baptism, by 
no means follows. 

The ancient and apostolic condition demanded of 
those who sought baptism, was, if tJiou believest thou 
mayest ; and the credible profession of such faith, gave 
the adult the right to be baptized. But he that believeth 
that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. It follows that 
every adult, before he received baptism, was deemed to 
have been regenerated. Now that regeneration should 
have been the previous qualification for the reception of 
an adult into the visible church by baptism; and yet 
have been the consequent spiritual blessing to be con- 
veyed to the party by the same baptism, is an obvious 
repugnancy. 

These texts, nevertheless, and many others, do es- 
tabhsh that a change of some kind is wrought by the 
Holy Spirit upon those who are really united to Christ. 
Some think, that the powers of the soul are strengthen- 
ed ; others that knowledge is communicated in some 
such manner as that by which the prophets and apos- 
tles received the suggestion of ideas and words ; but 
if regeneration consisted in the reception of new pow- 
ers, or new light, or any thing which the unbeliever 
is physically unable to accomplish, then is he an ob- 
ject of pity, not the subject of just blame. But it is 
2g2 



366 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIOIVS. 

the heart which is ahenated ; a change of disposition 
is that which is wanting ; this consequently must be 
the regeneration which the Spirit effects, wheieby the 
man becomes a member of Christ and an inheritor of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

That baptism is a " sign of regeneration" is correct- 
ly observed by bishop Chase (Church Register, vol. iii. 
p. 181) to be not only the language of the 27th article, 
but of the Westminster Confession, and Cambridge 
and Saybrook platforms. But if, as he asserts, the 
first " dissenters^' went with " the church" in the sense 
entertained of the " efficacy of this holy sacrament," It 
was certainly not in that which the bishop holds. We 
cannot suppose that the learned bishop does not per- 
ceive, that to account baptism a sign and even a seal 
of regeneration, is vastly different from the position that 
every one who receives such sign or seal, receives 
with it that chaiige of nature, heart, or disposition, which 
the dissenters mean by regeneration. 

However " uniriformed^'' we may be, v^^e never wi5- 
report of his church, that they hold the final conserva- 
tion of the truly regenerated, and however " far, very 
far" it be from the worthy bishop to hold that doctrine, 
as he confesses, we are very sure, that he will hold it, 
if ever he understands the Scriptures correctly. If 
we were to impute to *' the church" any of several 
systems of doctrines, we should be in danger of " mis- 
reporting," for we are as much at a loss to know 
what they hold, as the Earl of Chatham, who said to 
the bench of bishops in the house of lords, My fathers, 
what are you ? Your articles are Calvinistical, your 
liturgy Papistical, and your sermons Arminian. My 
right reverend fathers, what are you ? 

According to the bishop of Winchester, his " church 
considers baptism as conveying regeneration," conse- 
quently baptism is not regeneration. When he repre- 
sents us as perplexing our hearers by " leading them to 
look for some new conversion, and to expect some sen- 
sible regeneration," he considers the regeneration, 
which he thinks is conveyed by baptism, to be a " con- 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 367 

version," but i?isensible ; and by affirming that they 
follow ancient example and practice, we are enabled to 
discern a striking similarity; for it was in ancient 
times believed, that the Spirit descended upon the 
consecrated water, and by it, in some way, regenera- 
ted the soul of the person baptized. 

In the New Testament, regeneration is sometimes 
taken in a figurative sense for baptism, bor?i of the wa- 
ter ; at other times for the reformation of the life or 
practice, born of the word ; it is also used for the resur- 
rection, approximating its classical sense ; but passing 
by these, the two bishops appear to agree in using the 
term to express the spiritual change, born of the Spirit; 
which they suppose to be conveyed into the soul by the 
Holy Ghost, by means of baptism ; and because it su- 
persedes what Dr. Sumner denominates a new conver- 
sion, preached by dissenters, there is no room to ques- 
tion, notwithstanding the difference we make between 
regeneration, as an immediate effect of the Spirit, and 
conversion as a consequence, that their ideas nearly 
accord with our own, as to the effects of the spiritual 
influence ; for we are as far as Dr. Chase from sup- 
posing any to be wholly renewed. 

The question about which we differ, seems, there- 
fore, merely to be, whether baptism is the mean of convey- 
ing the spiritual blessing. 

Baptisms among the Jews were external purifica- 
tions ; such were thc^se of John, and of the disciples of 
Christ, before his death. The dispute which the 
Pharisees had about purifying, must have regarded 
the propriety of their using jhis ceremonial rite. 

When a proselyte was received to the Jewish reli- 
gion, circumcision, baptism, and a sacrifice constituted 
the ceremony of introduction. And when it became 
expedient that Christians should receive some distin- 
guishing badge of membership, baptism in the name 
which the Saviour appointed, without circumcision 
and sacrifice, was the rite which he provided. 

Although any great change might be denominated 
a regeneration, yet the idea of a new birth was pro- 



368 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

bably derived from the Jews, who considered a prose- 
lyte as born again, not as having a new soul, but as 
adopted among the children of Abraham. The Sa- 
viour used the same phrase to signify to Nicodemus 
his need of a spiritual change ; but when he could not 
make the transition from the idea of naturalization to 
that of a spiritual regeneration, the Saviour distin- 
guished between a being born of the water and of the 
Spirit. 

Paul also discriminated between circumcision and 
that of which it was the sign ; and contended that 
Gentiles might have the circumcision of the heart, 
whilst destitute of the badge. So we think regenera- 
tion may obtain before, at, or after baptism; that the 
sign may exist with, or without the spiritual change ; 
and that it may become also a seal to the unrenewed, 
whensoever they are afterwards born of the Spirit. 

To limit regeneration to the washing with w^ater, 
appears to us without authority; and to make it the 
certain effect of an external rite, is nearly allied to 
mysticism. How water appHed to the body should 
convey spiritual influences to the soul, and change the 
disposition, is beyond the reach of reason and science, 
and as it receives no support from the Scriptures, we 
can only assign it the character of a charm. Were 
dissenters thus to make water-baptism, which is a physi- 
cal act, to be the infaUible medium of a spiritual ef- 
fect, they would, however uninformed^ be justly charge- 
able with exposing the cause of Christ to the derision 
of the enemies of the gospel. 

" The preacher of special grace must, consistently 
with his own principles, lead his hearers to look for 
some new conversion," &c. True, for though Dr. 
Sumner would confine the Spirit to influence by the 
medium of water, yet the tenth article of his church 
points to another regeneration, which he improperly 
denominates some new conversion, Pelagius held no 
other grace than Providence and pardon, Semi-Pela* 
gians admit spiritual aid, but free-will must begin the 
change. That article opposes them both, by the 



LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 369 

words, " Grace of God by Christ preventing us, that 
we may have a good will, and working with us when 
we have that good will." This is precisely the doc- 
trine of those stigmatised as preachers of special grace 
by the bishop; and also the identical regeneration 
which is not conveyed by water. This doctrine may 
be perplexing to hearers in the diocese of Winchester, 
but we suspect it is much better understood in the 
states of America than the baptismal regeneration. 

We are sorry that the phrase special grace, with 
which Dr. Sumner too justly upbraids us, ever came 
into use; yet no more is meant by it than by the 
words quoted from the article. Also, if the Arminian 
perversion denominated common grace, an imaginary, 
universal, resistible, inefficacious influence, had not 
been introduced, the term special could not have ap- 
peared as its contrast ; thus the blame justly recoils 
upon those of his own faith. 

But when the term special grace, being equivalent to 
grace simply, is taken to signify that influence of the 
Holy Spirit by which the soul is regenerated, in other 
words, the heart or disposition is changed and progres- 
sively sanctified, no inconvenience can spring. The 
work of the Spirit in regeneration, in which man is 
passive, ought to be distinguished froni conversion, in 
which man is active, in turningyrom sin by repentance to 
God by faith in Jesus Christ. Accordingly the Scrip- 
tures consider sanctification to commence in regenera- 
tion; but conversion, or turning from sin in the exer- 
cise of a holy disposition and a corresponding deport- 
ment to God, are man's duty, though the fruits or 
eifects by which the new birth is to be known. 

As the outward circumcision made a child of Jacob 
a Jew outwardly, and without the circumcision of the 
heart, he was not one inwardly, or really an heir of 
spiritual blessings; so to be horn cf water only, renders 
a man merely a member of the Christian church, and 
gives him a title to its privileges. Consequently, until 
he is horn of the Spirit, that is, regenerated or baptized 
by the Holy Ghost, he is not adopted, justified, sancti- 



370 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

fied, nor will he be found to be an inheritor of the 
kingdom of heaven. Paul had been circumcised on 
the eighth day, but not in heart, till on the way to 
Damascus, nor baptized till afterwards. 

That the word regeneration may be taken either 
for a being born of the water, born of the word, or born of 
the Spirit, we have admitted; but neither can it justly 
be infeired from the words, "except a man be born 
of the water and of the Spirit," nor from the connexion 
in which they occur, that the one birth is either the 
immediate effect of the other or its necessary concomi- 
tant. On the contrary we are cautioned by an apos- 
tle against any reliance on water-baptism in the rnat- 
ter of salvation, " not the putting away of the filth of 
the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience." 

There has been, too long, a disposition among our 
own to depreciate the talents God has given to man, 
to restrict his freedom in the exercise of his faculties, 
and to make him a machine. On the other hand the 
church, though sufficiently orthodox in her articles, 
has, in her teaching, gone into an opposite extreme, 
and either magnified human power with Pelagius, re- 
ferring all to moral suasion ; or supplied its supposed 
defects with Arminius, by imagining grace to be given 
to all, and exhorting only to improve it ; or by sup- 
posing every one to be regenerated by baptism, and 
brought into a state of reconcilement, taught them 
to expect no other regeneration, nor to look for a new 
conversion. Thus in the Spirit's work of regeneration, 
though Jesus Christ, comparing such influence with 
the invisible air, has said, " no man knows whence it 
Cometh," the bishops of Winchester and Ohio, sup- 
ported by their liturgy, say, We know whence it Com- 
eth, for it is co?iveyed by the water in baptism. 

It has been argued, that if baptism be " attended by 
no real grace," there is no benefit and the sacrament is 
nullified, for it is not even a sign of regeneration, 
since so many after baptism live profane and unholy 
lives. The unscriptural word sacrament, w^hich signi- 
fies mystery, may thereby lose its original intention, 



LITURGICAL CONSlDERATIONSv 371 

but the truth is that this melancholy fact] of subsequent 
impiety is proof, that the water does not regenerate 
the soul ; yet impenitency cannot hinder that baptism 
should remain a sign to accuse and stare the baptized 
infidel, at every step of his career in wickedness, and 
the abused benefits redounding from church member- 
ship may become an additional source of eternal 
misery. 

It is asked, "are — the doctrines of efficacious grace 
and its necessary consequence, final perseverance, to 
be supported in spite of the Scriptures'?" We reply, 
the term "perseverance" which we are ashamed to see 
in the Westminster Confession, bears too close an affin- 
ity to Arminianism, to be found in such sense in the 
Scriptures ; but we use conservation in the sense attri- 
buted by the ancient divines, as well as Dr. Sumner, 
to perseverance, as its substitute ; and acknowledge 
with him, that it is the necessary consequence of effica- 
cious grace ; for if it be not efficacious, and if there 
be any good, that comes neither mediately nor imme- 
diately from God, but springs from man, then is man 
independent, and God has ceased to be supreme. Nev- 
ertheless the divine supremacy and man's dependence 
in the most unrestrained exercises of his will, appear 
in the Scriptures almost in every page. And it is by 
this grace, which thus conflicts with the htargy, that 
the saints are kept unto salvation. 

In our simplicity, we had thought regeneration a 
change of heart, a new and right spirit given by God 
immediately, and that what he does, he does forever; 
but the amiable bishop of Ohio affirms that his church 
"finds no such regeneration in the Holy Scriptures, 
she holds to no such in her articles, expositions, or rit- 
ual solemnities" — and admits no other than "a regen- 
eration by water and the Holy Ghost." That is, ac- 
cording to Dr. Sumner, baptism is that which conveys 
regeneration ; but the Scriptural expression is gram- 
matically "6om of the -water and'^ born "o/" the spirit. ^^ 
This doctrine naturally leads men to believe, that 



372 LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

divine power has no effect in man, but only towards 
him ; provides moral means, but sends no immediate 
influence; that man is possessed of moral ability as 
well as physical powers; and consequently that human 
agency, and self-sufficiency supercedes the necessity 
of immediate spiritual aid. But if that divine influ- 
ence, which the prophets foretold of the Gospel era, 
and for which Jesus Christ taught his disciples to look 
and to pray, has no actual existence, who will receive the 
report? Will the natural man receive the thi?igs of God, 
except the arm of the Lord be made bare? Will the carnal 
mind lay aside its enmity? Does the Ethiopian change 
his skin, or the leopard his spots? 

But such questions are superseded by this doctrine, 
which teaches that every one who has been baptised, 
is regenerated. "When," says the bishop of Ohio, 
"does the regenerated state of man commence? If 
words can be so framed as to give a plain answer, 
they are those of the apostle, when we are baptised into 
Christ — "for as many of you as were baptised into 
Christ, have put on Christ." The worthy bishop will 
excuse us for saying, that this passage will not prove, 
that the inward spiritual grace, always accompanies 
the outward visible sign ; because its sense is fixed by 
the context. Gal. iii. where Christ is contrasted with 
Moses, and the Gospel with the law for the purpose of 
opposing the liberty of Gospel against the bondage of the 
law; so that this text means no more, than, that they 
who came out of the water of baptism, and put on 
other clothes, also put on the profession of Christ, and 
were no longer bound to the ceremonial observances 
of Moses. 



FINIS. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



